1. Expensive
- Costs of living are high, compared to many other parts of Asia.
New car prices or ownership of a new car in Singapore is the most expensive in the world ($90,000 and upwards for a new car). A person can easily buy a decent sized apartment in a good neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur, 2 condominiums in Bangkok Thailand and in many parts of Indonesia, China, Philippines etc.
- The price of unleaded petrol is also exhorbitant comparable only to places like Paris and Frankfurt per litre. The price of premium unleaded 98 Octane petrol VPower from Shell costs S$ 2.75 or US$ 2.00 per litre. In the US, petrol or gas as they call it, is priced at U$ 2.00 per gallon (or 4 litres).
Ouch.
- Flats (Government owned) and private : while they are of good quality, the price of some resale HDB flats in mature estates can reach close to S$ 1,000,000 and sometimes breaking the $1 M barrier. These are for units closer to the city and can only be purchased by Singaporeans.
A resale flat means that the original owner must have bought and lived in the flat for 5 years or longer. From an original 99 year leasehold air space, the lease may have run down perhaps 5 to 10 years so there is only 85 - 94 years left on it.
Fact is, for the new HDB flats while they may costs S$ 250,000 to $400,000 these flats are only for Singaporeans and people enjoy rebates when buying them.
For condominiums, the price new will range from S$ 600 to $2,500 per square foot depending on location, tenure, access to the MRT and popular schools. Hence condominiums start from prices ranging from S$550,000 onwards. Here foreigners and PRs can purchase these apartments.
That for many Asians, Americans, and (East) Europeans an exhorbitant price to pay.
-We must be careful so as not to take too large a loan (a maximum of 30% of a Singaporean's gross monthly income can be used to repay the mortgage from the HDB) so that we do not end up being slaves to the flat, or apartment. That would ultimately be a travesty of justice and a poor financial decision made on a couple's part.
- Certain food and drink are expensive ; the price of beer is very high compared to many parts of Asia and Western Europe. Good International food at the malls can be very pricey. I recall overhearing some Americans complaining about the price of burgers, potato chips and even wine bought from the supermarket. These import liquors are taxed heavily and the cheapest wine in our supermarket is easily twice that from the same vineyard and sold anywhere in Australia. In Germany a good Riesling costs at most EUR 10 - 15. Here it would be EUR 30 and above.
2. All year hot and wet weather
Imagine running 6 hours in hot and humid Singapore Ugh !
-It gets boring with the heat year round ; I yearn for the lovely spring, autumn and even winter months (I know I am biased only staying for 2 weeks on holiday) but 4 seasons make the weather a conversation starter in many places. In Singapore, its only Hot and Hot and Wet.
Humidity is awful especially if you wore long sleeves or a suit out in this weather.Ugh !
3. Constantly Griping Singaporeans ; Complain Kings and Queens
- I know, we are masters at complaining about everything. Lets start with the traffic (which is not as bad compared to New York, Paris, Shanghai, Bangkok, Mumbai and Jakarta just to name the usual culprits.) is one bug bear. This is especially true when we the motorists pay so much additionaltaxes for the car and there are still jams on the roads for the constant slow lines of traffic caused by the never ending road works (tree-pruning, new upgrading of roads with underpasses or flyovers, new MRT stations). Terribly frustrating at times.
The additional taxes (see below)
COE, ARF, and the ERPs are additional taxes on car ownership which us when added up, make our cars easily 3 times the cost of this same car when purchased in USA or Germany.
Its true.
- MRT breakdowns get our goat all the time. We complain day and night about the lousy reliability of the trains, the fast pace of life, the queue jumper and the general overcrowding of places of interest
- Singaporeans lack the subtle art of being cool ; instead they end up appearing 'kiasu and kiasi' (afraid to lose, lose face and also of death). This is the end product of always being on the treadmill of trying to be ahead of everyone else in getting there. While we are not so blatant as some other (obvious to many) Asians in bad behaviour, we can always show more graciousness and politeness in engaging random people in the street.
Many foreign people are too polite to tell me so, but this is the general feeling experienced.
- I cite one incident in Hong Kong where I was a bit lost (happens to me from time to time) and wanted to know how to walk towards a certain MTR station ; at the walkway overpass, I approached a middle aged lady with a nice smile on my face and asked her in my basic mandarin how to get to ____ MRT station and whether the route I was taking was correct and the general direction.
Her reaction to me was " Go find it yourself and don't bother me".
I was aghast at the very unfriendly attitude she had, and hence associated it with all Hong Kong people. This one unfortunate encounter should not tar my impression and cast judgement on the entire community is indeed wrong on my part.
4. Too crowded
- The place is getting too crowded. Just 15 years ago, we had about 4 million people, now, we have more than 5.5 million, thats 20 odd percent MORE in such a short time. With the new migrants, residents and temporary workers, I feel that this place we call home does emit a certain edginess which can be seen and felt on the roads, this surely reflects the mood of the people about living here.
5. Sense of being Left Behind
- Again its just my perception than some Singaporeans think that the Government is not doing enough to take care of the potential of the next generation of citizens. Our children have access to the schools based on merit and University education is highly subsidised. However, with the open door to the many foreign students coming here to study and the (perceived) relative ease they (the foreign born) can find a job at the expense of the local kids, then this is something which is to be looked at and policies tweaked so that the local born children do not get left behind.
It would be indeed sad if our children (boys) who have sacrificed 2 years for National Service and end up losing out to people who come in and occupy the prime jobs. To be honest, the small segment of foreign people I meet engaged in some of the jobs in the manufacturing sector are not too impressive to me, and I wonder if a local kid or a senior person is being denied a job.
The element of Reservist committment is also a sacrifice which our men citizens do ever so often. The opportunity cost for them (ie. perhaps a project will be given to another who does not need to go for reservist training and hence disrupt his civilian job) can be very great and promotion and appraisal reviews must bear that in mind.
These in a nutshell is what comes to the top of my head on this rather balmy Saturday afternoon.
My views are purely mine and are not meant in any way supposed to influence thinking about our Singapore.
