Do Some Good Today
Small Deeds
Big Differences
A do-good initiative by Fair Price Foundation
No jest involved. Traditional poster art this is not; but certainly a close modern counterpart. A large delivery truck stuck in the Changi Road traffic outside Har Yasin in this rundown to Hari Raya on Monday; Fair Price is a supermarket. The large steel banner seems to flutter in the breeze: white background; soft primary colours; and the contemporary version of the pictogram in the universal language of children's books. Fair Price is one of the largest chains; NTUC is another—National Trade Union Congress—both with a stated mission to keep prices rock-bottom for the lower-end wage earners. (Fifteen, or even twenty percent it might be from memory, survive here on S$600 per month.) Given single political party domination these almost fifty years since independence, government owned and controlled media in its entirety, religious bodies and trade unions both strictly controlled, if not in fact co-opted by government, the position of the supermarkets does not need to be enquired too closely. This is the fascinating nub here in Singapore, a shining example to many in the region and well beyond: a demented breakneck leap to modernity foisted upon it by the forces of globalization and Western corporate interests; and at the same time the last flickering remnants of community and co-operation, Confucian/Buddhist values (Muslim and Hindu in the minority case) and a moral code from the ages. It has after all only been a famously thirty year leap from Third World to First. The pluto/techno-crats know only one way—wreckage tidied up behind them. Can-do—straight-ahead—chop-chop—brook no challenge. A little democratic opinion beginning to flare in recent time and growing slowly; some outright defiance and challenge. Opposition members of parliament finally—the days of “Cold Storage” (another supermarket incidentally) of dissident voices no longer sustainable. The earnest rousing and rallying of the populace meanwhile; an unending cycle of colourful community events and festivities. Sport and Arts the next arm of this social pacification project, with a good deal of money channelled in that direction. Meanwhile onward with the main growth game, shopping malls and housing towers, tourism, logistics, pharmaceutical and military production, extended Special Economic Zones within the neighbourhood in order to take advantage of the huge cheap labour pool. Venice on the Equator some of the commentariat are fantasizing, stroking themselves under their desks.
Small Deeds
Big Differences
A do-good initiative by Fair Price Foundation
No jest involved. Traditional poster art this is not; but certainly a close modern counterpart. A large delivery truck stuck in the Changi Road traffic outside Har Yasin in this rundown to Hari Raya on Monday; Fair Price is a supermarket. The large steel banner seems to flutter in the breeze: white background; soft primary colours; and the contemporary version of the pictogram in the universal language of children's books. Fair Price is one of the largest chains; NTUC is another—National Trade Union Congress—both with a stated mission to keep prices rock-bottom for the lower-end wage earners. (Fifteen, or even twenty percent it might be from memory, survive here on S$600 per month.) Given single political party domination these almost fifty years since independence, government owned and controlled media in its entirety, religious bodies and trade unions both strictly controlled, if not in fact co-opted by government, the position of the supermarkets does not need to be enquired too closely. This is the fascinating nub here in Singapore, a shining example to many in the region and well beyond: a demented breakneck leap to modernity foisted upon it by the forces of globalization and Western corporate interests; and at the same time the last flickering remnants of community and co-operation, Confucian/Buddhist values (Muslim and Hindu in the minority case) and a moral code from the ages. It has after all only been a famously thirty year leap from Third World to First. The pluto/techno-crats know only one way—wreckage tidied up behind them. Can-do—straight-ahead—chop-chop—brook no challenge. A little democratic opinion beginning to flare in recent time and growing slowly; some outright defiance and challenge. Opposition members of parliament finally—the days of “Cold Storage” (another supermarket incidentally) of dissident voices no longer sustainable. The earnest rousing and rallying of the populace meanwhile; an unending cycle of colourful community events and festivities. Sport and Arts the next arm of this social pacification project, with a good deal of money channelled in that direction. Meanwhile onward with the main growth game, shopping malls and housing towers, tourism, logistics, pharmaceutical and military production, extended Special Economic Zones within the neighbourhood in order to take advantage of the huge cheap labour pool. Venice on the Equator some of the commentariat are fantasizing, stroking themselves under their desks.
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