Saturday 8 March 2014

SinCity

So here I've arrived... After 3 months of a rough ride I put my feet on a shore of the promised land. I've reached my vantage point, my Asian lighthouse which was calling me subliminally for the last few years. I left my caravel like a Spanish conqueror ready to claim this land as my destination, my home...
 What awaited me was a concrete Golem, shining Moloch. At first I felt like a caveman in the Museum, like a Tarzan who left jungle and found himself surrounded by flashing screens on a Time Square. Massive invasion of cars, streets wide like runways - when you cross you pray for the green light you can barely see on the other side to stay on, ultra - modern architectural orgy complimented by endless shopping malls which can swallow and confuse you like Minotaur's maze, grim, poker faces of pedestrians like wax figures that just escaped from Madam Tussaud's Museum, glued to their touch screens like these are their life sustaining batteries or electronic wires controlled by some invisible Puppet Master. Strange, artificial world screaming with wealth and greed, submerged in mindless consumerism. Clean and polished like it was build yesterday and nobody lives here... Not even a hint of stench or uncomfortable smell which attacks your senses at every dodgy corner in KL or Hong Kong... Not even dodgy corners to wander around accidentally...Is it a mock-up of a city? Are all the people just extras like in the Truman Show filling the streets to fool you, just for the show? Or androids, clones from Blade Runner set...
 I felt strange and uncomfortable. Couldn't find myself here... Shock and awe, decompression tougher than in Hong Kong. Did I spend too much time surrounded by poverty and pariahs of the civilized world or there is something wrong with this city? Don't get me wrong. It's overwhelming and impressive. Every single skyscraper is a separate chapter in the history of modern architecture, Marina Bay with it's flagship Sands casino/hotel (which costed 5.5 billion S$ to build), Art-Science Museum with a 3D projection at night, Gardens with a light and music show (which is subtle and done with taste on the contrary to Dubai) makes your jaw drops. You sink in after a while. Splendor  takes over your soul like Lucifer when you don't even realize. It's just to easy to resist. It's beyond being easy.This city thinks for you. All you need to do is sit down and relax (and open your wallet).Switch off your neuron functions,they are redundant in this environment. Maybe this is why people seem soulless,unplugged like zombies..
 Maybe all sci-fi prospects are right? We will grow into passive beings which allow technology, their surrogates to live for them. Just accept inevitable and don't get upset at the progress - perhaps this is how modern evolution looks like?
 Fortunately there are parts of Singapore that have more human dimension. Little India is dirty, chaotic just like KL and you can even spot litter on the streets. There may have been attempts to contain everything in massive Mustafa Centre but it flows freely around the vicinity. Chinatown is like a dummy again but at least it's cramped and less organized around Pagoda Street and Heritage Center.
 City of greed, show off and success, safety heaven with 5.5 million highly stratified shopaholics cramped on the area slightly bigger than Isle of Man (which has 85.000 inhabitants for comparison), ultra-modern structure sealed with strict rules and regulations regarding social and environmental behavior, friendly, expensive and derived from soul... Gotham City in a state of perfect balance without batman. Welcome to high-end version of Asia.