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Australian’s negative view of Singapore after living for four years
Having lived in Singapore for the past 4 years, I agree with a number of the points in this blog, but many of them are just pure nonsense, or exaggerated e.g. the military. Australia has an extremely well equipped and trained military, whereas Singapore relies almost exclusively on National Service to fill it’s defence force, and the average time of service is less than 3 years. Although well equipped the SDF is not particularly well trained, and has virtually no combat experience.
As far as cost of living is concerned, other than local food and public transport, everything else in Singapore is as expensive if not more so than Australia – try renting or buying a property, or leasing or owning a car, or eating out anywhere except a food court, or buying alcohol or any imported food that is not considered a local staple.
There are also many aspects of life in Singapore that are deliberately suppressed by the government, who control all local media e.g. the very high rate of youth suicide, abuse of foreign domestic and construction workers, the fact that a large percentage of the population cannot speak English despite it being the national language.
Singaporeans themselves are also not the most friendly of people; you will never receive an invitation for a meal at a Singaporean’s house, and many of them are just plain rude and arrogant, especially the older generation.
It is now widely acknowledged that the Singapore education system has some major flaws i.e. anyone who does not go to university is looked down on, and the vast majority who do go to university have a big problem with cognitive thinking because the entire system is built on roke learning.
It’s also a very stressed society, with most employees working in excess of 10 hours per day, with very little work-life balance.
No thanks, I will take the relaxed Australian way of life any day to that of Singapore, but Australia can certainly learn many lessons and take many ideas from Singapore.
Having lived in Singapore for the past 4 years, I agree with a number of the points in this blog, but many of them are just pure nonsense, or exaggerated e.g. the military. Australia has an extremely well equipped and trained military, whereas Singapore relies almost exclusively on National Service to fill it’s defence force, and the average time of service is less than 3 years. Although well equipped the SDF is not particularly well trained, and has virtually no combat experience.
As far as cost of living is concerned, other than local food and public transport, everything else in Singapore is as expensive if not more so than Australia – try renting or buying a property, or leasing or owning a car, or eating out anywhere except a food court, or buying alcohol or any imported food that is not considered a local staple.
There are also many aspects of life in Singapore that are deliberately suppressed by the government, who control all local media e.g. the very high rate of youth suicide, abuse of foreign domestic and construction workers, the fact that a large percentage of the population cannot speak English despite it being the national language.
Singaporeans themselves are also not the most friendly of people; you will never receive an invitation for a meal at a Singaporean’s house, and many of them are just plain rude and arrogant, especially the older generation.
It is now widely acknowledged that the Singapore education system has some major flaws i.e. anyone who does not go to university is looked down on, and the vast majority who do go to university have a big problem with cognitive thinking because the entire system is built on roke learning.
It’s also a very stressed society, with most employees working in excess of 10 hours per day, with very little work-life balance.
No thanks, I will take the relaxed Australian way of life any day to that of Singapore, but Australia can certainly learn many lessons and take many ideas from Singapore.
