Older Travellers, sterile leaders

The backpacker scene in Penang is dominated by the 40+ age group.  Not to say there are not younger back packers, but perhaps they are all on the beach in Thailand.  Wondering why this is and listening to their talk, some of it is memories, some of it is early but not well off retirement, but some of it is the search for a less hermetically sealed and more abrasive holiday.

Coming to Penang after Sinapore, especially to the budget end of the holiday market, the differences are very noticeable.  I enjoy the dirt, noise and confusion, the sense that there is something more raw and less sterile here.  Perhaps I and others sense fewer barriers between our selves and others – the difference between seeing through a window, and standing in the scene yourself.  One contrast is the malls – Penang has them (see picture of a huge one) but they are more like market stalls and small shops moved inside than swish department stores.

Perhaps the difference between Penang and Singapore is about intensity of experience. We enjoyed the street food, but also enjoyed high tea at the Eastern and Orient hotel (the Penang version of Raffles).  Both things we would not normally do.  But then my partner and I are both people who enjoy change and variation, and do not have much problem with rats and cockroaches.

The other point of view is the bland shopping mall land that Singapore has become.  I’ll give you two quotes about it:

Lee Kuan Yew (former Prime Minister): “when you are hungry, when you lack basic services, freedom, human rights and democracy do not add up to much”.

A 65 year old taxi driver we asked about how life had changed: “people were happier then….now too stressed, too materialistic”

I’m with the taxi driver, but then I have the luxury of a full belly, health-care and public services.  As to the shopping mall, as Fiona says in Shrek 2, “I really don’t need all of this…”.  Perhaps that’s why there are few backpackers, let alone older ones, in Singapore (or could it be the cost of living in Utopia?).

Oh Brave New World – Singapore?

“O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here!  How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world!  That has such people in’t!”   – Miranda, The Tempest, Shakespear 

I write this post while on holiday in Singapore, visiting friends.  In the first few days I am struck by the difference in culture, and an immedieate feeling that this is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.  It certainly has more than enough shopping malls to satisfy the most dedicated consumer.  It also has a high control/obediance culture.  This means low crime and decent homes, a good standard of living for most, and a powerful economy.

However, one friend complains of lack of creativity at work from Singaporeans.  This fits well with things I have read, that mark the local culture as good at getting things done in an organised and efficient manner, but poor at the sort of indivdualistic innovation we see more of in the West.  Another friend here said “it all looks nice, but scratch beneath the surface and there’s no history”.  Everything we see is new, as if the past has been deliberately obliterated. 

So low crime, good standard of living.  Yet this country of cleanliness and order makes me think of Australia, another good time culture, but where the vicious past and maltreatment of the Aborigines was hidden and largely ignored.  Not that I know of any darkness hidden in Singapore.  Its just that my internal bias kicks in to link the two.  If I had to pick a reason, its that I value chaos and creativity and dissent more highly than order, material satisfaction and community.  My bias probably.

Yet I am left with the question: “Is it better to be Socrates dissatisfied?” (J.S.Mill)

Giving up Lent

A friend of mine asked what I was giving up for Lent.  My flippant reply at the time was “Lent itself”, although I felt guilty having just eaten her pancakes.  I further explained that I didn’t feel there was anything I particularly needed to give up.  She replied that this was not the point.

I got to thinking about this, and realised that it was rather like my feelings about New Year resolutions.  This was about the negativity of giving things up and the need to perhaps have a vision, a dream, something positive that will gradually force out more negative behaviour and the poor self image that creates it.

Lent is about more than self denial, but do many of us treat it that way?  One of the things I remember about fasting, rather like crash diets, is that you normally end up eating more and putting on weight as a result.  All that denial springs back on you like a snapped rubber band.  It also makes me think of the film “Chocolat“.

So I’m not going to give up Lent, which would be negative.  Instead I’m going to do something positive for Lent, which will be to practice gratitude each day for what I have.