h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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Incidently, what part of Singapore?

Hey like Singapore is really small, don't you know? No matter which part you come from, we have basically the same identity.

We have 2 kinds of citizens here,
a) The modern cosmopolitan, jet sets, executive types, who can either speak the Queen's English, or pure American, your choice.
b) The local, more landlocked inhabitant, called the heartlander. The heart-lander speaks mostly dialects from a choice of half a dozen races. Contrary to belief, they are pretty savy about what's on around the world.

So we have actually evolved a new animal here, called the cosmopolitan heartlander. This is the guy who will argue in charismatic Hokkien or eloquent Cantonese dialect, the merits of Greenspan's latest plan, or the sheer bad luck of Clinton's amorous shenigans depressing the price of his shares in the stock-market!

Interesting place, yeah?

Hmmm - seems very cosmopolitan, alright! Also, it seems to me that I have a lot to brush up on before I get out there sometime within the next year or so.... My Hokkien lacks a certain fluentness, for one thing...

Anyway, Goddag og Velkommen (that's Danish, at which I'm far better) -- which basically just means Hello & Welcome. I think it might be fair to say that H2G2 is turning into a *very* cosmopolitan place, indeed!

Have fun,

SG V

I don't remember it as that small. I lived in Changi district for a while, you see - which is why I asked in the first place.

From one small place Northern Ireland to another welcome. I see you're already submitting entries I'll slide over there and check them out. See you around.

DD

Hmm ok, I'm currently staying in the north, Ang Mo Kio area, close to the Lower Pierce Reservoir, where you can see the monkeys coming down to get a snack from the strollers. There are a string of roti-prata shops here of some renown. Where are you putting up at present. seems like Singapore is quite well-known, even in its finer geographical details! I still remember when most people thought in was some exotic province of China, before Michael Fey and chewing gum propelled us into the international limelight. Go figure, huh?

At the moment, I'm in another small place - Inverness in Scotland. I stayed in Changi as a kid for a while, in a smallish village from what I remember. It seemed at the time to be very 'old worldly' - the kind of place you see in the movies sometimes. There was a small forested area close to the reservoir on the South East side, and the village was mostly bamboo/mud hut construction, with about 12 houses in it. Downtown there was mostly just a few hotels.

The largest house sticks in my memory as there was an old guy staying in there, and I still have visions of him leaving the moon gate. Never went up to Ang Mo Kio.

I've seen pictures recently, and frankly didn't recognise the place. It's all built up with modern buildings/flats/towers etc. and even the airport was just a small one while I was there.

Yup, buildings in Singapore sprout quick as grass. Sorry if my mails read more as apologetics than anything else. I thought if H2G2 doesn't have anything more on Singapore, what the heck, later on, I may just cut and paste the replies as a new Guide entry. .

I've pretty much travelled to quite a few countries, close to 20 in fact, Asia, Europe. And you know what? I LOVE living in this country. A lot of people gripe about the people here being complacent, how they leave everything to the government to settle. The good thing is that though the ruling party pretty much dominates the political scene here, they do a pretty good job of it. They're smart, ruthless in getting good people to join their ranks, and pretty much corruption free. The downside is that most people who would love the arguing and politicking of a more "democratic" scene feel that there's not much room for it here.

The irony is that the average Singaporean may be more of a political animal than most citizens of other countries. What he lacks in open street mob demonstrations, he makes up for it by being pretty much informed and opinionated. Ask any taxi driver the minute you get off the airport and you'll get a earful!

Singapore is also like the favourite test specimen on your petra dish in a busy science lab. Things keep happening here all the time! New buildings sprout up, old ones get demolished, whole geographies get changed. I stayed in Juring when I was a kid. After I moved and went back there a couple years later, I got lost! Couldn't recognise the place!

A lot of locals feel that the reason Singapore is able to change and move so quickly to become a player in the global scene, is because of the size. Being the crossroads of South-East Asia helps as well, cos a lot of trade helped it prosper in the old days, like being the village at the junction of major rivers. Being small, you see the good/bad results of new policies pretty quickly. I think Lichenstein in Europe had the same advantage.

Enough apologetics for one night.Sorry, boring geography lesson. I shall reserve further comment until my satiric bug bites again. It'll make for better writing and reading then. Adios.

What's Inverness like? Sounds almost as exotic as Singapore to Europeans.

I think you should definitely do an article on this, theo.

Inverness......hmmmmmm....

It's a very cool place to be if you don't like big cities, in that it has all the amenities, but it's just a hop, skip and jump away from the countryside. It is split in two by the river ness, and we have several bridges accross this. in fact, i've got a good picture of this which I will put up on my home page in a couple of hours/days, whatever.

Most of the Invernessians I know of are a very introspective bunch, not really open to new ideas as such. In some respects, it can be like living in a previous century. Especially the attitudes towards men and womens roles.

However, out of all the places in the Highlands, it is certainly my favourite. There are lots of cool street parties and buskers to wonder at.

Most people here I would say are very pragmatic. It seems to be split into 2 distinct types viz : the backpackers/travellers/tourists, and the older citizens who love to discuss things like the highland clearances. There also seems to be an element of the cowboy amongst most guys in the 16 - 40 age group, which I find very interesting.

I've been here now for about 3.5 years, and have always heard it is the fastest expanding town in Europe, but am a bit sceptical about this myself.

sounds like medievel England. Has the sexual revolution and the emancipation of Woman reach there yet?
Loved your piece about the highlands. sounds like a good place to retire to, for long wet walks in the evenings

G'day, from Sunny New Zealand, TheoDORE. I am sub-editing your article on Ah Bengs for h2g2. Could you, in the next couple of days, let me know the name of the TV series you quote. I want to add it to your yarn.

Loonytunes on 9/4/00

Hi sorry for the late reply, haven't accessed this web in ages!

Ok the TV sitcom I quoted is named "Puay Chu Kang", PCK for short. It translates roughly to "broken wreck of a house". PCK is the name of a charcter in the show, who is a building contractor. "Broken house", get it?. PCK was quite successful here in Singapore and has entered the local cultural-speak. To say that some-one is very PCK means that that person has entered a class of his own. He would be rich and successful in a small way, preferably in some building-industry related job, wear extremely loud designer brand clothing, and speaks loudly and in Singaporean style pidgin-English. Bring him to a classy restaurant or cafe and he would pour his latte or cuppucino from his cup into his saucer and slurp loudly from it, with one leg up on his chair!

The term is usually used with humour and endearment, and not meant to be too disparaging. PCK was a popular character here.

Thanks for the info Theodore. Alas it was too late for me to include it in the edited article.

You may want to add it to a forum attached to the subbed article which you will find at the bottom of your page.

Loony

Ooops. Make that "You may want to add it to a forum attached to the subbed article which you will find at the bottom right-hand side of your page eventually." (When h2g2 powers-that-be put it back into the system)