Is Singapore on the level of Hong Kong?

[Clodius et Claudius.]

Originally Posted by kyh

The colonial buildings in Singapore are nice, but that's not all about it. Singapore appears to me as rather superficial. You don't see the hawkers pushing their carts on the roads any more, unlike in Penang and HK. The traditional jobs have largely been abandoned for modern, white-collar jobs. There's just a lack of genuineness in the character of Singapore. It's like a Dubai which is built as a showpiece (I never liked Dubai either) to showoff its success and extravagance.

That said, I had wonderful experiences in the city state. I'd love to work and live there, with its good public transport, clean environment, and compact nature.

Speaking of a "Showcase" city, talk about Hitler's Germania Welthauptstadt. He planned to rebuild Berlin into the world capital, with a triumphal arch so large it would fit the Arc d'Triomphe into its opening. Also, a Reichstag with a dome 840 feet wide, and a 400,000 seat stadium.

I don't see anything like that in Singapore. But I see how it could be a showcase, not necessarily of monumental hubris of a world capital, but of a utopia. Singapore is "the Bubble," a highly protected, self-sustaining, high-quality (and uneventful) town.

If Singapore could be compared to any other city, it would be Irvine, CA, an affluent city southwest of Los Angeles. It is essentially the suburban version of Singapore.

But Singapore does have very grand plans for its future, no doubt. It's an empire in its own way, an empire obsessed with permeating the land with its stamp of superb cleanliness, technology, and infrastructure, just as how Rome did with its empire.

It's growing rapidly. It's a behemoth. It's a city state. It has a rivalry with another city state, Hong Kong. It's Rome against Carthage.