At what price, to be no.1?

So Singapore is a boomtown today...

The statistics and world rankings, and the expats are saying so.

They say statistics don't lie. We're no. 2 in the world for nightlife and dining, 17th most liveable city, and we have the best quality of life in Asia.

We see our leaders fast-shedding Singapore's conservative cloak in order to rake in the investments and world-class talent. Bring on the F1. Casinos? We have not 1, but 2 upscale ones coming up.. Crazy Horse? Gay bars? Bar-top dancing? Been there, done that. We even have our very own Eye on Singapore - sorry, it's called the Singapore Flyer.

We're in superscale mode. To be in the league of the top cities around the world.

The downtown skyline is evolving. As a strong indicator that we're heading into a booming decade, the property market is bubbling over. Rentals have skyrocketed. Wages too are on the up-and-up. Our newly-minted grads now can demand $5000 monthly salaries, for jobs are in abundance, as we further diversify our economy. Unemployment is low.

Which is all well and good.
But I am tempering my euphoria. With a dose of prosaic reality.

All these are making me wonder about the Singapore Soul.
Are we losing our soul? As we sell Singapore to the rest of the world, are we selling our soul too? By soul, I mean, our caring selves, our identity as a nation, to stand as one with compassion and a sense of community?

Someone said to me, we're not quite there yet, that we don't quite have a soul, so how to lose one? We are in the process of building one, one may add...

Really? I don't think it's fair to say this land of our forefathers lacked soul. I beg to differ. Hey, we had plenty of soul. As well as guts and gumption to weather it all, and make Singapore what it is in the 80s. What we see today is perhaps a product mainly moulded by the post-65ers.

Ok, many may disagree with me. But why I decided to blog about this, is that I am truly worried that all this unbridled urbanisation risks leaving behind the less able, less educated, lower-paid among us.

I like Singapore the way it is. Multi-cultural. Multi-racial. Multi-lingual. Vibrant. So dynamic and efficient. Clean and safe. Sought-after in numerous fields. And so rich in diversity. World-class cuisines for the gourmet-food lovers are just minutes away from homemade noodles at Maxwell Hawker Centre. One can choose to have a cup of $15 specially-brewed coffee at the Hilton lobby, or that just-as-potent 60-cent kopi O kow at the neighbourhood kopitiam. We celebrate our diversity during the festivals - Hari Raya, Deepavali, Christmas and Gong Xi Fa Cai. And are well aware of our less abled and the old folks. Our mums and her kakis can enjoy her Chinese opera in Balestier while we take a trip to the Esplanade to catch King Lear.

Don't get me wrong. I am not resisting change. Far from it. In fact, I feel blessed to be here. I've travelled everywhere and even lived for a year in another developed nation, but I still wanna come home. Singapore has changed for the better, thus far.

Will the new Singapore be all of the above and more - that is, it is a place that everyone of us can call home? What about the have-nots? The less able?

The way I see it, the social inequalities and disparities are widening.
The gap is becoming unmanageable.

Will we see ghetto townships developing in Macpherson and Stirling Road where someone said is becoming a haven for drug pushers, single mums, those stuck in the poverty trap as well as the lonely aged?

I hear one voice too many complaining about the rising costs, while their low wages become lower..

I see one face too many not as excited about the blooming new skyline.

I talk to one person too many who do not view the boom period with equal enthusiasm.

And I've come across too many of our old folks who have to bend that weather-beaten body to clear tables, mop toilet floors and wipe lift doors for a living.

Meanwhile, our decades-old trees and 'old' buildings are being brought down in the name of modernisation and urbanisation. To hell with memories. And History.

The government says they are well-aware of these. And spending a lot of $$ and brain matter on policies to address this.

I'm actually quite disgusted that each time we talk about solutions, and our achievements, they are always measured against numbers..

The millior-dollar question then is: Are we doing enough? In our race to be no.1, are we losing our soul, the one that cares for others? For nature? as well as the one that is confident in our own skin, come what may?

Time for a stock check.