A Paradigm Shift 7th Dec 2018

Main Entrance to Casino 

I first went to Europe with my father in June 1974, I was just 11 years of age, and was very privileged to fly with him to his 'Fatherland' (England) or where he studied for 5 years in the late 1940s till early 1950s. Our Europe trip covered as I recall Italy, Greece and England and we had a great time together staying in his good friend's houses, eating their home cooked curries and visiting the ruins of Athens. 

I have not had the opportunity to visit Greece again, sad to say. I've back to the UK I believe 5 times or so, once in the 1980's during my Undergraduate days (we stayed for 7 days), twice in the 1990s (the tail end of our honeymoon was in England) and once for work. In 2016, I then visited London for several days for holidays.  

Monaco, and Nice I first visited these places as a poor student undergraduate in the late 1980s or 1987 to be exact. We had a bus tour and spent a total of half a day and 1 evening being awed at the splendour of the Cote D'Azur (Blue Coast) and the cramped Monaco where the rich and wealthy park their monies and citizenship in the banks and properties.

Entrance to the Casino 

I last went back in December 2018, on 7th December to be exact and I must say that I experienced a paradigm shift. Something in my mind had me thinking with a frame of reference that Singapore the island state was still economically and socially behind that of Monaco. There and then I had a shift in mindset. 

When we stayed those 5 days in Nice and visited Canne, Monaco and Monte Carlo, I realised that in fact, Singapore had moved by leaps and bounds economically, had raised its standard of living and the so called finer things in life like good French food, casinos and the flashy cars are all in abundance in our island state.

Singapore had indeed arrived on the world stage. We are no longer a place for cheap manufactured goods (20 years or more they have been long gone) or a stopover to Australia.

We are a destination in itself. People all over the world look forward to come to our island state to play in the casinos, swim in the infinity pool on the 58th floor of Marina Bay Sands and experience the Night Safari, Jurong Bird Park and Underwater World. We even have Universal Studios in our Sentosa Island.