Our guide for the trip today was Boone, which is undoubtedly misspelled, but is as close as we can come. He told us as we got on the tour bus – our group was about 17 people – that his presentation would be partially in “Singlish” – the unique form of Singaporean English that incorporates not only the British English left because of their colonial past, but also the Chinese, Malaysian, Hindu and other immigrants that have been essential to the development of the country.
In many ways, Singapore is like the United States in that it is primarily a country of immigrants. Something like 80% of the population claims a Chinese heritage, followed by Malaysia and Indian.
In order to understand any country, you have to know a little of it’s background. That’s even more important in Singapore, where we knew next to nothing.
Singapore is tiny – only 11 x 11 kilometers, although it’s shaped like a triangle. It was originally started in 1299 as a small fishing village in the swamp. It now boasts a population of 4.17 million and has 7.52 million tourists a year.
Most of the population live in apartments. There’s simply not enough land mass for everyone to have detached, single family houses like we’re used to seeing in the US. Because the country sits so close to sea level, over half of the available land is committed to water catchment. They’ve mastered urban planning, so this means there are spectacular green areas even in the concrete jungles of the big city. There’s also something like 19 golf courses, 4 nature reserves and they claim more flora and fauna than in the entire North American Continent.
Singapore, as it exists today, was started by a guy named Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in 1819. He got a concession from the British to do spice trade. He apparently saw the need for a more modern city than existed and, seeking to improve his own holdings, undertook some pretty significant urban planning and development.
Like all governments, they went through a few “Master Plans” before they finally figured out how it works. It looks like they’ve got it right now, though. They have 5 airports in the area, and have capped the height of buildings at 280 meters so as not to interfere with the airports.
We went to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to get the overview on the City, and they had some great displays set up. Everyone’s favorite was a mock up of the entire country that showed every building either in existence or planned. It let you get a feel for what the island was really like and how big it was.
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