Poverty in Singapore (2)

Sleep on a plane is an elusive thing. So Porcorosso was stretched out in his seat, not sleeping, and decided to read this article on inequality (you will not be able to read it unless you have a subscription to the Economist – see, even on the Internet, we are divided into the haves and the have nots – subscriptions, that is).

Anyway, the thrust of this article was that in America, while the rich was not necessarily getting richer, the poor was getting poorer and the middle was getting more squeezed in the middle. It suggested that the key was not the average income but the median income and which side you fell on.

This is certainly true. When Porcorosso returned from London to make his sty in Singapore, he had to take a pay cut from his First World pay and benefits package to a Third World salary because he was not considered to be Foreign Talent. Still, it was clear to him that in income after tax terms, he moved from one side of the income median to the other. In other words, his standard of living got better.

Now, if you follow this through to its logical conclusion (and we have to go slowly as Porcorosso is a simple pig) then one’s standard of living can improve without getting more money if the median shifts down. Which seems to be what yesterday’s Straits Times was reporting. So congratulations – though you may not have known it, your standard of living may have just gotten better in the last year. Now this is not the same as cost of living or the quality of life but those are completely different subjects altogether.

Tax – now the same Economist article makes a valid point about the amount of taxable benefits (including income) as being a better measure of wealth. Medical benefits, company car, reimbursable expenses. This is because the Inland Revenue cares more about you than you care about yourself. There. So on that basis, two-thirds of Singaporeans do not pay any tax. What does that say about us? This simple pig is not sure.

To be continued …

Poverty in Singapore (1)

This worries me – here is the link.

Sure, as Jesus said somewhat cynically, you will always have the poor with you – but it must be a source of concern when the poor get poorer and there are more of them. When Porcorosso was a young pig, he thought the size of the problem was small and that poverty could be easily eradicated, at least in Singapore. I was wrong. The problem is bigger than I thought and seems to be getting worse.

Commentary to follow. 

Don’t mention the war

The prodigal returns but I only like got off a plane – anyway, here are the pictures from my trip. The ride back was crazy – 17 hours over the North Pole in an Airbus 340 stripped down to resemble a flying gas can but it got me back.

On this trip, I learnt that the most spiritual people in the world were sumo wrestlers – which kind of makes sense because, as a lifestyle choice, I'll bet you have to ask yourself "why"? – and constantly. I also read on the journey back that the biggest political problem facing America today is the inequality not just in the distribution of wealth but also the opportunities for the next generation. Again, true (and more on this next time) – I would probably be in a worse position if I had been born in the land of the not so free. This would still be true if I tried to transpose some of the circumstances of my situation – that is, born into a working class family and of the racially dominant group in the population. In other words, I would probably a Hispanic window cleaner or something like that.

Anyway, the Germans. They grumble a lot, their summer lasts about two weeks (only if they are hosting a World Cup) and their food is terrible. At least the beer is good. However, in almost every German I have met, there is a profound sense of what has happened to them as a nation and as a people. That mistakes have been made and should not be repeated – a realisation of what they owe the world and not what the world owes them. I would not like to say that is what happens if you lose a World War (or even a World Cup) and certainly the Japanese do not feel the same way (sumo wrestlers included) but in and of itself, it is not a bad thing.

Homeward bound

10 days, 11 thousand miles, four hotels and countless sandwiches later, I am on my way home. Just a 19 hour direct flight to go.

If this is progress

I don't want it – I have been waking up the last couple of mornings in my many starred hotel, getting into my work clothes and crossing Park Avenue to my enormous (temporary) office overlooking mid-town New York. Swanky – bu then it struck me this morning as I was in the line for my coffee at Starbucks that this place has no soul. For all the excitement and all, New York has no soul.

Nor any heart for that matter. Sure, it's got buzz – driven by greed, hunger and insecurity plus a dash of avarice and a sprinkling of lust (remind me to tell you about my SATC moment). The need to be recognised at the right places to eat, drink and party (we start tonight at Buddha Bar and hopefully will proceed to Gotham Grill). It's got size and height – the skyscapers cast lengthening shadows onto one another as I write. Above all, it's got money.

Not smart money like the West Coast or even London, just more of the plain old grubby stuff. Money from the inflated sandwich prices, money from the people in the glass towers staring at their computers feeding on the sandwiches. And slaves – the indentured of the great god Mammon, tied by chains of mortgages and the shackles of conspicuous consumption. Now don't get me wrong, I have not found or rediscovered religion. I am no less of a capitalist than you would typically find in the legal department of an investment bank. I just like to think we have a little more – of values, depth, of moral persuasion, of obligations and of self.

In Gotham City

I had almost forgotten my love-hate relationship with this place. Still, it's warm and sunny with a hint of cloudiness. Things are more messed up in this city but people seem a little nicer than I last remembered but hey, I've only been here for one day. TV still sucks!

Flying Pig

Porcorosso is off to Frankfurt but not the World Cup. Thence to New York – so from the home of Apfelwein to the Big Apple. Watch this (cyber) space!

Nature versus nurture

I was reading an article last night about whether Robert Parker is right to prefer highly engineered wines over the good stuff that comes out of good soil. Garagiste wines are like American girls – big, loud, blousy, robust, maturing early and then fade into middle aged flab. A bit like Anna Nicole Smith. Terroiriste wines are like French women – sophisticated, refined, well-preserved but whimsical and unpredictable. Think Sophie Marceau. 

So do you prefer joie de vivre or do you want a bit of je ne sais quoi? 

Raffles Place 2

Where I work these days is a very strange place – every day at lunch time, something happens in the open space around the entrances to the MRT station. You've heard about the topless men and hand cream – today it was more topless men but it looked like they had just been to the gym. I suppose they were on their way to their offices but what would your boss say if you walked in like that? There were also people giving away balloons (our tea lady took one) and women in very tight tops with the message "Stretch your weekend". God knows what they were selling.

Engage warp drives, Mr Sulu

Porcorosso was thinking hard about a comment he wanted to post on his friend Mr Wang's blog (and Mr Wang is a very, very clever man – even Mr Brown says so) when it occurred to him that in the passage of time, there are occasions when something happens which changes everything after that and puts everything that has gone on before into perspective. I think my O-Level mathematics teacher called it "points of inflexion". That is so Euclidean and two dimensional – I prefer to see it as some kind of vortex or black hole where people from different parts of my past (or somebody else's past, for that matter) get drawn in and planets collide with hemorrhoids resulting in light, noise, clouds of space dust and anti-matter. You could call it a supernova, even. Or you could call it talking out of Uranus.

Anyway. The point is that random things come together and often enough in a way that makes you suspect that they may not be so random after all. It is easy to see (at least for the Theists) to see a hand of God in this – the other hand of God is recovering well and taking a short break from the funny farm to be a commentator on the World Cup for Argentine TV. Atheists, agnostics and other psychologists call it (somewhat nervously) synchronicity – The Police (a very great band) dedicated a whole album to it. I'm not sure what to believe except that the truth is out there and it is spooky.

In any event, Porcorosso did not post the comment he intended (he posted something else) and the truth has become something else. By the way, did I say hemorrhoids? I meant asteroids.