Singapore: the modern fairy tale gone wrong. A sign of things to come?

This is a compilation of time-lapse, iPhone shots, HDR photography & DSLR video footage. My own musical representation of this strange paradoxical city.

As a film-maker I get to travel and on this occasion I was in Singapore for 5 days to shoot a commercial for a French perfume company while my partner & baby updated their Bali visas (which must be done outside Indonesia).

The first thing that struck me was the immense number of restrictions on what we in the western world take for granted. Before I even entered the country I was told by my producer I shouldn’t have any more than one packet of chewing gum in my pocket, as to have two packets would be illegal. Not that I chew the suff, but it does seem a bit steep imposing fines for possession. The reason they make it illegal is simple. The want a visually perfect city. And to be fair, they have come close to achieving this.

Walking around the ultra-modern architecture filled with strategically placed pristine foliage I felt as if I were in a kind of financial district Disney World designed exclusively for rich adults. Especially after dark when the light shows and musical water fountains spring to life. Everything was immaculate, shiny & new, maintained at night by an army of low paid workers.

However, their endless rules & regulations are from my humble perspective, not only ridiculous but a clear symptom of our sick society as a whole. Littering, spitting or chewing gum represent an immediate fine in a city where one in every five people work for the police in some way and don’t even think about doing drugs there, a crime punishable by death.

There are (very few) designated smoking areas outside of which there can be no smoking at all. There is a system which financially rewards anyone who reports these supposed ‘crimes’, making everyone a potential police member of sorts. Cars cannot be owned for more than 10 years, after which they must be scrapped or exported. And imported cars are heavily taxed and cannot be older than 3 years. This keeps the place looking modern and forces a consistent market. And just to top all this off, the prices of absolutely everything are more outrageous than you can possibly imagine. With the exception of the taxis for some reason, which I found to be quite reasonable.

I imagined that the wages must surely reflect these high prices, but this is not the case. In fact, there is a very clear divide between rich and poor. I saw people picking through the rubbish at night to find food before settling in amongst it to sleep.

The main reason why people live in Singapore is to take advantage of the extremely low taxes. But while the poor sleep in stifling flats (if they are lucky enough to have this), tucked away out of sight, crammed in like sardines, the rich live much as you would expect… in air-conditioned luxury. So to make the most of this tax haven city, one must be a high earner. And as a consequence there are plenty of expats who have settled for this reason, or at the very least based their businesses here.

The business types who walk these immaculate streets by day ironically don’t seem to notice them at all because they are constantly glued to their digital devices which can be used even on the Metro where you can expect to have your bag searched for explosives upon entering. But being the Disney World of lights that it is, there are plenty of tourists too, who flock on mass particularly to the artificial oasis of plants & sculptures by the bay where giant metal trees light up at the same time every night to a perform a musical display of dancing colours which viewed from the centre, is quite surreal. My son Esteban enjoyed it very much, screaming with joy throughout.

I cannot deny that Singapore has been creatively & thoughtfully designed with large roads to permit the easy flow of traffic, enormous shopping malls in which the saying goes ‘if you can’t find what you’re looking for, you haven’t looked hard enough’ and modern features which continually surprised me. Self flushing toilets for example and interactive shopping mall maps capable of planning the quickest route to your desired shop. And best of all, baby seats on the the walls of ladies toilets, permitting mothers to do their business without having to put their children on the floor!

My son, Esteban. 16 months.

But even amongst all this modern luxury & convenience there was something clearly amiss. Less than 200 years ago this place would have been a jungle. Yet there remains no evidence of this whatsoever. And upon witnessing the army of poor who maintain the visual aesthetic for the army of rich, I saw this soulless land for what it truly is. A concrete jungle of wealthy consumers all reaching for the same unachievable goal, at the expense of nature: happiness through material possessions. Or, in the case of the poor, simple every day survival.

Naturally, as someone who lives on the edge of a jungle in a Balinese eco community I am somewhat bias, but we are all still thankfully entitled to our own perspective. And this my friends, is mine.

You can follow my ongoing journey of discovery told through my films on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqqcEBprtry9rqOcWBVA7rQ
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