Soap Dispensers, Civility and Spanish in Singapore

Singapore is incredible.

Singapore is so incredible I’m going to just go out there and say it, it is the most incredible, fascinating and impressive city I’ve visited.

Ever.

Singapore is clean, orderly, smart, kind, beautiful, inspiring and so very green. Singapore so impressive that it has actually given me hope for the future. If you only go one place ever, go to Singapore. If you don’t know where to go on your next trip, go to Singapore. Just go to Singapore.

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But with that said, it’s so incredible I couldn’t write about all the incredible things if I tried, so I’m just going to focus on two: soap dispensers and civility.

Yep, that’s right, I said soap dispensers. 

You see I like to wash my hands. I just like it when my hands feel clean. Plus it’s just good practice. Especially when traveling it’s just a nice touch to get to wash your hands, with soap. Now this should seem like a fairly simple process. Get soap, get water, rinse, dry. But surprisingly I have found this to be one of the most difficult processes not only traveling but even more so in the good ol’ USA. You see quite often the process is stalled with the soap dispenser. You might pump the soap dispenser to find out nothing is inside it (looking at you convenient stores), you might try the automatic soap dispenser just to find it doesn’t see you so you try another one and another one until the 4^th one down finally gives you a pea sized drop of soap and you have to wait for it to refill and give you another pea sized drop of soap and you repeat until you actually have enough soap to create a lather (looking at you airports and malls), or there is just no soap dispenser at all. A process so fundamental to human health still seems to fail to make the grade at least 50% of the time I’ve tried it in public.

So you might appreciate my sheer delight when I found that every single soap dispenser I used in Singapore worked. EVERY SINGLE ONE. And worked perfectly. Meaning it was present, clean, functional, filled and in the case of the automatic soap dispensers – they dispersed a perfect amount of soap every time, yes EVERYTIME! – no need to repeat or try 4 dispensers before success. I mean as I’m writing about this I’m still daydreaming about washing my hands in Singapore. Even the public toilet in Little India which cost $.25 to use HAD A FUNCTIONAL SOAP DISPENSER!

And while this seems trivial at first glance, here’s why it matters. 

How you do the small things, you do the big things. (said somebody famous…)

And if you ask me that’s why Singapore works. If care and attention is put into making soap dispensers perform their function well and reliably in the processes of a city, you put that much care and attention into making everything function well and reliably in the city. You cover sidewalks with canopies to make foot travel easier and more comfortable. Your subway is beautiful and smart. You see the connection between the natural world and the built environment and combine the two in architectural design. You realize climate change is happening and build in solutions into your city’s development. And you respect the dignity of all humans by keeping restrooms clean and soap dispensers functional. A little bit of care and attention to detail can change everything. 

Which brings me to civility. As I watch from afar honorable American values meltdown sadly and publicly in an environment where civility has been effectively canceled, you may be able to understand my awe at the Singaporeans efforts to create, enhance and nourish civility in their city-state. Here’s what I mean. 

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Societies need leadership and shared values to succeed and Singapore is succeeding because of those exact two qualities. And if the public reinforcement of respect of each other isn’t mind blowing enough (seriously America it’s getting embarrassing), as I was eating breakfast at the hostel one morning there was a town hall forum on TV with Singapore’s Prime Minister discussing race relations between the many ethnicities in Singapore. Represented were Malays, Indians and Chinese, all of whom refer to themselves and Singaporeans and they were talking openly. 

And then the prime minister spoke. And I honestly don’t even remember what he said. But what I do know is I remember exactly how he spoke. He spoke thoughtfully. He spoke with respect. He spoke with compassion and with intelligence. He also spoke honestly and offered a window for dialogue, not an all-in-one canned politician response. I was so moved by his dialogue that it nearly brought me to tears. To see that there is still leadership of that quality existing in some form, any form, in this world right now gave me hope. And I hope it gives you hope too.

On a less fundamental, but not less relevant, note on leadership. SG is considering banning PMDs, or as we Austinites know them better, scooters, if people don’t use them responsibly and decently. SG has implemented requirements that the scooters speed not exceed 10km/hr and also started a public service messaging campaign on proper use of roadways and sidewalks for PMDs. They have also said they will be willing to ban use of them until proper infrastructure is in place for their safe use. In my time there I saw three people on scooters, they were riding respectfully and caused absolutely no disruption to the folks on foot. Could you imagine leadership taking action like that in Austin, or so many other cities where scooters have taken over? Bravo for leadership in a time when so many leaders are afraid or unwilling to stand up and make a decision, even less, to do the right thing to create a safe and livable environment for all citizens.

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And now I’m stepping down from my soapbox (no pun intended) to share my story of serendipity and Spanish in Singapore. 

So it is my second day in Singapore and I decide to head to a free morning walking tour of Chinatown. But as luck would have it I can’t find the subway station that I need in time and by the time I do I miss the start of the tour. So I get off in Chinatown, look around for a few minutes and decide well, I guess I’ll just head over to the Singapore Bicentennial exhibit that everyone is talking about. Originally I was going to go after lunch but because I missed the Chinatown tour the day started taking on a schedule of its own. Now I get to the Bicentennial exhibit only to find out that tickets are sold out (its free but you still have to register) but there is a cancellation for the show in an hour if I can wait. Um yes, I can wait an hour. As the showtime comes (the Bicentennial exhibit is an incredible exhibit filled with live actors, 4D theater and even rain, like you need an umbrella rain, designed to really take you into the story that is the history of Singapore. It is truly incredible. But of course it is, it’s Singapore). But anyway, the show is about to start and they call us by name to check us in. Before me, a couple and a baby and then me to make a group of four. And there is was. My serendipity in SG. Cynthia, Francisco Javier and little Sarah are most recently from Spain and have been traveling for six months while Francisco Javier is on sabbatical. They have been everywhere, have been making it happen through couchsurfing, lived in Santa Fe, NM for three years and have even been to Austin. We proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon together after the Bicentennial exhibit talking about Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and living with an open heart. They took me to a Buddhist temple that serves free breakfast, lunch and dinner every day (and has for 85 years), I got all of their recommendations for things to do and see in the city and I had so much fun getting FJ’s hilarious reflections on American culture like “you know, why can’t we just go and get coffee? It’s just coffee. Why do we have to schedule it a week out?” and other observations that were so spot on I was in tears. And most specially, I got to hear the sweet sound of Spanish for a few hours which just tickled my heart and took me back to the start of the summer and reminded me what a wild, wonderful and amazing place the world really is. Singapore is just incredible.

Hasta luego SG!

love,

rk