John & Belle Have A Blog

How Do You Say "Arrr" in Bahasa Indonesia?

We have perennial problems with pirates in the Straits of Malacca. That's...so random. Isn't it an outmoded career choice? I mean, who's a pirate nowadays? Well, people who want to steal things from boats, apparently. It's no joke either; though they usually just tie up the crew and set the looted boat adrift, they do kill people from time to time.

Singapore Photoblogging

Purty Pictures, below the fold.

Confinement Fun

I have another delightful feature of Singapore to tell you about, but one that doesn't raise any public policy issues, being purely cultural. Singaporeans think you should really be babied during your "confinement", that is, your first month post-partum. If you don't have a Chinese mom or mother-in-law to be making you endless black chicken and herbs soups, you can order traditional Chinese confinement meals to be delivered to your house. (And they had them in the hospital, too!). And you're meant to be drinking Benedictine every day, on account of it being so herbal and medicinal. Of course, under this scheme you are not supposed to wash your hair for a month, or take the baby outside, but since I am a "cafeteria" Buddhist/Taoist/Confucian like that awful John Kerry, I just ignore that part.

And on the Malay side, I just finished my five days of daily massage followed by binding with herbal wraps. I was very skeptical about the value of the binding, but I figured I could just enjoy the massages and then take the wraps off. To my surprise, they were not only comfy and supportive, but also actually seem to work in shrinking me down. What next, will it turn out that those various French passive cellulite-reducing massages and wraps work too? (Minor public policy note: I read in French Elle this month that the costs of some of those treatments are partially reimbursed by the French health care system. Now, that is gold-standard.)

I'm NOT Going to Pay a Lot for This Baby!

I know it's boring to hear about how efficiently Singapore is run. Matthew Yglesias got accused of being soft on authoritarianism for this just the other day (read the comments). But, I really have to tell you something amazing. The other night I went to the hospital at 4 am for monitoring, after many hours of irregular contractions. Long story short, Braxton-Hicks, and they sent me home just as pregnant as when I came, baby is fine. But here's the thing. I was in the hospital for about five hours, on a fetal monitor, being checked on by nice nurses who brought me tea. I saw a doctor for a few minutes, and got a big shot of steroids (to help Violet's lungs develop). The doctor was nice and knew what he was talking about. Now, in November, I spent about 7 hours in a US hospital, getting monitored periodically. I got no medicine but an IV drip that they inserted just for the fun of it. I saw a doctor with possibly the worst bedside manner I have ever experienced (and I've been to some crappy doctors), one who was totally ignorant about how a normal placenta could look on an ultrasound (i.e., it could have little "lakes" or open spaces in it, but that's not bad.) He also mumbled something alarming about baby's heart and then didn't explain it (I really can't express to you what a bad idea it is to say something like that to a nervous, bleeding pregnant woman.) In both cases, I was paying out of pocket. Total cost in the US: $1,800. Total cost in Singapore: Sing$125 (US $ 75). Look at those numbers again. Now, I don't know what the Singapore government is up to here, but it's working. Part of it is that you can't sue for massive amounts in cases of malpractice, so insurance is cheap. Singaporeans also have individual Medisave accounts, which are tax-free. I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but I think some money is withheld from your paycheck and depostited into your individual account, and that you can also top it up with more of your own money up to a certain amount. From what I know, there isn't the link between employment and insurance that we have in the States; everyone just buys their own insurance (we do). This means that some types of coverage are hard to get or expensive, while something covering only catastrophic care is cheap, so many people just pay out of pocket for routine medical care. Which is cheap cheap cheap! The hospitals are nice, and even if you go to the emergency room you get seen quickly, and it's cheap. I got a doctor's visit, X-ray and some meds when Zoë broke my nose (oh, don't ask) for Sing $50. I think the US should really look into whatever they're doing here, and maybe we should do that thing, too. Hey, and they're repealing the gum ban as part of the US/Singapore FTA!

Strong brand identity through strict self-identity?

Because Singapore is what it is, and not another thing. No, I don't think the city-state's obedience to this basic metaphysical stricture suffices to mark it out as an attractive tourist destination, per se. (I have posted on this fraught topic before, but with respect to Canada.) I'm at a loss to come up with anything clearly better, although I haven't had eight months to do so. (The 'Malaysia, Truly Asia' jingle is catchy, so tautology cannot be written off as an inevitable drag on the market.)

The thing about Singapore, from a tourist's point of view, is that everything is so stunningly efficient, from the moment your plane touches down in what I believe in my heart to be the nicest airport in the world, Changi; and the food is so good. Really good. And you are going to visit several other countries anyway, since Singapore is about the size of the Bay Area. On the other hand, 'Singapore: come for the airport, pause for the pepper crab, see Thailand' is not exactly a winner. Maybe: Singapore: sweet, sensible, and so close to so much'. Modest but winning. Like the city itself. Maybe someday they'll build the space elevator here, since it's on the equator and all. And the slogan will still work.

I suppose the emphasis on Singapore's sharp, well-defined self-identity could be an attempt to woo vagueness-averse tourists from competing destinations like the Midwest and upstate New York. But frankly, if you are even thinking about visiting Kansas instead of Singapore, you're nuts.

Domestic Policy Abroad

Timothy Burke reveals an interesting facet of the great blogospheric nanny debate in his latest post. (See also Harry's post on Crooked Timber, which contains lots of relevant links). He talks about how he just feels disturbed by the idea of having someone other than a family member in such intimate contact with his life:

What it boiled down to was that I was intensely uncomfortable about having strangers inside my domestic space. Not racially phobic, but generically, universally so. I didn’t want any people seeing my dirty clothes, my books, my things, my way of life, if they weren’t very close friends or family.

I was interested in this discussion, because John and I employ a maid here in Singapore (she is also a nanny). I realize that D^2 thinks we're jerks now, but I chalk that up to his having listened to the Clash so much as a young man:

There were masters and servants and servants and dogs
They taught you how to touch your cap
Through strikes and famine and war and peace
England never closed this gap

- "Something About England"

No, actually, I understand that some people just feel really strongly that you ought to clean your own toilet (like Chun, for example). Or, possibly have your wife clean it for you (but Chun doesn't think this. He's on toilet duty for all time.)

Sad, really

'Greedy' is not really the first word that comes to mind, but - yes - I suppose he is that, too.

How is it possible that there are people who can be taken in like this? How can you be capable of holding down a job, taking out loans from a bank, flying to England - how can you even be capable of answering email or finding your own front door to get out of in the morning? - without knowing that Nigerian spam is Nigerian spam? How can your family and friends fail to stop you from doing such a thing? It boggles the mind.

Makansutra

Nice article in the Times today about the glories of Singapore eating. The author got a personalized hawker tour with K.F. Seetoh, the author of popular local guide (and TV show, website, et al.) Makansutra. I'm jealous, even though I'm not sure I could have handled that many bowls of bak kut teh. John and I went to Jade (a 5-star Chinese restaurant in the restored Fullerton hotel) recently on my mom's ticket, and it was amazing. The crackling pork skin, Peking duck skin (each served as a crisp rectangle of golden cruncy goodness) and five-spice foie gras was the best. I only wish there had been more of it. Mmmm. Skin.

Photoblogging

Some Singapore scenes.

Happy 38th Birthday, Singapore!

Today is Singaporean independence day. National Day (or Nation's Day), as it is called. And here's a thing our non-Singaporean readers may not know: Singapore has the peculiar distinction of being a country that got its independence by being forcibly, quite against its will, kicked out of another country, Malaysia. I cannot think of another instance of this happening in the history of the world. Countries NEVER kick parts of themselves out of themselves. How did it happen? Well, as you can imagine it's a bit complicated - and I'm already oversimplifying. But, basically, Malaysia's political leaders thought that Singaporean political leaders - Lee Kuan Yew, in particular - were getting uppity. Surely a few years of cold, hard 'independence' would reduce this pesky lot to crawling back for readmission on reduced terms. That was 1965. As recently as 1970, Fortune magazine - I think it was - had an article about how an independent Singapore was manifestly unviable. Given how it has all turned out, it's a pretty inspiring story. Basket case overflows with goods. And then some.