Thursday, February 21, 2013
Bali and Singapore
Bali
to Singapore:
Singapore
is so 21st century if not 22nd Century. It has the
biggest, tallest, largest, most numerous, newest, concentration of
modern structural materialism imaginable, if fact it is unimaginable
until you get here and see for yourself, its really real. The
apartment blocks row on row, the malls that go on forever in many
layers, the office building of striking design, an indoor air
conditioned madena (a market in north Africa also called the casabah)
for 650 stalls, Orchard street is the miracle mile upon mile,
expensive hotels and malls and more hotels and malls.
Singapore
grew up on this swampy island all at once in the last half of the
20th Century for the Chinese who did not want to be in
Malaysia. It had been ruled by the British and became independent
only in the 1960's. It clearly is run by competent technocrats. The
way of attacking traffic jams is to build a first class road system,
an efficient metro SMRT, lots of buses, time related road fees ( a
plan then used by the city of London), but because it is not
democratic, the government can charge 100% duties on cars, limit the
number of 10 year permits to own a car, (prices are bid on the market
and average 10,000 SD) and it works. Cigarettes are over 10SD,
because they is no popular political opposition, limited press
freedom, government control of TV (they can't control satellites) but
the foreign media doesn’t cover local issues. Most of the
population does not know English to read the Straits Times which is
mostly business and careful. Its a club and membership is required.
AND IT WORKS..
Everything
a real city planner could wish for and starting in a fairly empty
space went from nothing to 8 million in the last part of the 20th
century and this part of the 21st it has a building boom,
construction private and public drawing in a million guest workers.
Now they are going to build a high speed train to Malaysian capital
of Qutalapore ? The state and big thinking developers are married.
Now
Bali is a mess. Too many cars, too little road equals constant
traffic jams with flocks of motor bikes moving in and out in what
appears a very dangerous manner. It is better on the north and east
coast, far away from Kuta. Places can look beautiful with layers of
rice fields inside a tropic forest and no mess. While Singapore has
thousands of neat stalls many offering food, Bali has messy road side
Comados ? ( The Puerto Rican little store, bar, cook out, etc.) Like
in central America, not regulated and a blot on the roads.
Singaporeans
are clearly industrious people, Balinese are not – they are
extraordinary patient in their traffic jams, there is no pushing or
shoving, they are soft spoken, friendly, helpful if they can, and
mostly honest. Now Singapore is no way as pushy as New York or Paris
or Rome and traffic is orderly. But in comparison with Bali they are
in a hurry – not quite as rapid moving as I saw in China I.e.
Londoners move faster that Spaniards - its an interesting
measurement.
What
I observe in this are shadows on the future of technology and
technocrats and big developments that have a sterility, being not
very human in scale and reflecting a race to earn and spend – the
global brands are much in presence here – you know who they are –
Gucci, Prada, south beach, the grove, or Beverly hills, fifth avenue
in spades etc. I don't know but everyone else does. And cell phones
or personal devices are everywhere.
Florida
has its share of road side tick tack and Daytona Beach shows no signs
of intelligent planning. So I show my prejudice for Spanish small
towns, rural Italy and France, quiet more human and quaint .. built
like Sienna carefully over centuries and I look upon a future of
more Singapore like alien creatures with concerns – issues raised
by Louis Mumford 50 years ago with the answer being green-way, new
planned communities as functional towns, as in Finland, Sweden, new
towns out of London, but there is not enough space in Singapore.
It's
OK to be rich, much better than poor, its good to be efficient, its
better to have things work than have lots of breakdowns - BUT give
me a break – can't cities be collections of neighborhoods like in
London, most of New York – Chicago: Singapore has Chinatown and
little India as tourist sites, neighborhoods are blocks with numbers
such as building 28 of huge apartments houses like Soviet
developments. Two thirds are state supported public housing which is
then sold to the residences at near market prices, the state must
make a killing. They look the same as private developments and are as
well built. Socialism run rabid in a very capitalist state – like
in China itself - Maybe there is something in the culture of China
that produces this synergy between capitalist and socialist planning.
Surely this is massive State Capitalism.
While
Indonesia has state capitalism, military industrialism, it has not
effected Bali except consumer goods (cars and motor bikes) and a few
shopping centers in Kuta which is a Benedorm type tourist city –
not native.
