Facebook, Electronic Town Square

Facebook (FB) is the new town square. It’s an electronic town square where you can live out loud. FB is where I have brief exchanges with friends I’ve met in person and friends I only know through our online relationship. We chat about current events and share what we’re up to by posting comments, links, photos, video, etc.

People ask for help, from referrals for a plumber to resources for designing a community garden. You can also view FB Friends’ pages, even if you don’t do any posting. Folks who only peek and don’t post are known as lurkers. Social media has generated new vocabulary to describe its milieu.

Some people disparage FB and other social media as time wasters or addictive. Yes, but no more so than hanging out aimlessly at the mall or coffee shop, or watching television nonstop. As with all things enjoyable and psychically rewarding, you have to have your priorities straight and exercise moderation and appropriate use. FB can be mindful and uplifting for participants if they're engaged in dialogue and sharing life stories.

FB launched in February, 2004, and I’ve been on FB since February, 2009. I was slow to embrace FB, being the laggard in the family, behind my 26-year old daughter, who’s always first, and my 42-year old son and 73-year old husband, all three of whom typically jump in months before I embrace new technology. I still don’t use an iPad, but they all do. I have as much technology as I can consume for the moment. Adam Ostrow reported in September, 2011, that "Facebook Now Has 800 Million Users". I now have 1,015 FB Friends.

I signed onto FB when I realized that I was missing out on my friends’ online conversations. As I’ve become adept at FB, I’ve come to value it as a source of maintaining connection with family and friends, building relationships, and reconnecting with old friends like high school classmates. FB has been a bonus source of new learning, because FB Friends turn me on to authors, news, and music I wouldn’t otherwise discover.

Age is not a barrier to adopting social media. Young users enjoy it as much as older users. Young people are Digital Natives or Netizens, who were born into an age of computers and the Internet. For us older folks, an adaptive attitude willing to try new things is necessary. One must overcome not only a technology barrier, but also an intellectual and emotional one to live out loud.

Privacy concerns about living out loud are real. One does need caution because of the potential for criminal acts like identity theft and stalking. However, one must likewise exercise caution living in the world even when not online. For some 800+ million users, the benefits of being online with social media outweigh the downside.

Life is full of risks, and one has to be informed, up-to-date, alert, and cautious in all of life’s endeavors. Living out loud on FB is no different. As one develops experience, one does gain a sixth sense about who’s legitimate and who’s iffy on FB. An analogous situation is how an experienced driver has a sixth sense about the iffy driver in front of her and anticipates a sudden lurching into her traffic lane.

How did she know? She had never met that driver before, maybe hadn’t even followed for more than a few minutes. Yet, the sum of all her driving experience gives her a gestalt about noticing minute cues, many of which exist at the subconscious level, that add up to an internal warning system that says, potentially dangerous driver ahead. Netizens possess that acumen online.

Social media are tools, vehicles for human interaction. The fact that social media exists online makes it new and different, not bad or lesser than in-person human interaction. Not everyone will get it, but not everyone likes to talk on the telephone or meet for coffee either.

Don't Blame the Actress

A Huffington Post article yesterday morning reported that Lawrence O’Donnell had a lot to say about former Michigan Representative Pete Hoekstra’s blatantly racist and xenophobic Super Bowl ad. You can replay the ad here.

On his Monday night television show, O’Donnell replayed the ad, and the Huffington Post reports that he also said, "It's one thing for Pete Hoekstra to buy 30 seconds of television time to tell us, if he can in clear English...what troubles him about this country's relationship with China. But it is quite another for him to hire an actor to do his dirty work for him."

Then the Huffington Post went on to say that O’Donnell “harshly criticized the actress for playing a character in a political ad that cast her as a racial stereotype, and said he would like to know ‘what exactly she was thinking.’”

I agree that it is unfortunate that the young Asian actress took the job. I think that the focus of all discussions about the ad must be on Hoekstra and his racism and not on the actress' complicity. Hoekstra had the economic power to offer a job that the actress took.

When individuals like the actress participate in their own oppression due to racism, they haven't yet learned to look at systems of oppression and are only thinking in terms of me, the individual, which is, of course, the American value and meme.

Perhaps the actress regrets taking the role now. She probably didn’t envision that she would be the subject of criticism from so many people, including on-air commentators, for accepting a paying acting job. But we must place the blame for the egregious racism of the ad and the accompanying Website debbiespenditnow.com squarely on Hoekstra and not deflect any of it onto the actress.

Hoekstra’s campaign has already tried the ploy of playing victim by claiming that this entire racist campaign is satire and that those of us who are calling attention to his racism and xenophobia just don’t get it. Hoekstra’s spokesman Paul Ciaramitaro is quoted as saying “I think the viewer of an ad is going to recognize satire” in a politico.com story.

Spreading the blame to the actress or feeling sorry for Hoekstra reaping what he has sown are deflections from the focus on his racism and his unsuitability for a Senate seat. It is unacceptable to denigrate Asians by portraying us speaking broken English and inciting fear and hatred of China and Chinese people as the ones to blame for the ills of the American economy. The economic story is so much more complex than that. 

Living With Accelerating Change

In the church circles where I participate, we’ve recently engaged several conversations simultaneously that were triggered by an incident about the use of Twitter in an open meeting. Contrary to what some might think, the inciting incident isn’t what’s important. It was merely a timely catalyst for other conversations about much more relevant issues, some of which are also very important.*

Let me set out a few thoughts that illuminate the stage on which we are all living and participating in our daily lives, whether it’s at work, at home, among friends, at church, in a legislature, having lunch, at school, or at the mall.

In an article entitled “Are You Acceleration Aware?” on The Futurist Web site, this point is made:

“. . . the world of 2100 will be more different from 2006 than 2006 is different from 8000 BC.”

Think about that:  the world of the approximately hundred year period from 2006 to 2100 will be more different than was the world of the approximately ten thousand year period from 8000 BC to 2006. Put another way, the rate of change in the world has increased one hundred times in that ten thousand year period! That means the rate of change in the world we live in today is accelerating exponentially from year to year and decade to decade within our lifetimes.

It is no wonder that we are flummoxed as individuals, and that those of us who are older are more flummoxed than those who are younger. The pace of the world into which we are acculturated as children and as students establishes a sort of baseline of the rate of change to which we become accustomed and consider our norm. My 26-year-old daughter’s experience of a rate of change as being normative is different than mine, even though I work hard to keep abreast of changes in technology and in society. I am bogged down by my memories and experiences of the way things used to be, going back 63 years. She has no experience before 26 years ago.

There is a tendency among us older generations to be nostalgic as we reflect upon what we’ve seen and experienced over a lifetime that spans decades, major world events, and technological advances and inventions that are now part of our everyday lives.** We older citizens have experienced major historical events that have changed our worldview going forward. In many cases, our emotional selves have been less agile at keeping up, and not all of us have the intellectual curiosity and/or capacity to acquire familiarity, much less facility, with the new technology. The younger generations are no longer merely citizens, but they are netizens, members of an online world based in the Internet that is real, whether we say so or not.

I have often said and reiterate now, that what keeps us young is not merely staying physically active, but also staying intellectually and emotionally curious and experimental.

Being experimental is key to staying relevant. How can anyone know without trying? And before anyone marches out the old, tired rationales of how it is foolish to try everything, let me state clearly that I am not suggesting that everyone try everything. But what if you, and I, tried a few new things that are outside our comfort zones, because the young people in our communities care about those things, obviously find value in them, and spend time and money doing them.

We just might learn something new. We might even like some of those new things. We will be less likely to be judgmental about why those new things are automatically wrong-headed, and much less likely to legislate against them and place barriers to the younger generations doing their thing and to those of us oldsters who want to join them.

*Among the topics that have been raised and that require much more conversation in wide open spaces that intersect and include church circles are the following, which I will blog about in the coming days:

• Communications in an online world: The tensions between old modes of communication and new modes of connectivity.
• Balancing tradition and the leading edge: Respecting our history, traditions, and old wisdom juxtaposed against embracing new visions of community and breaking innovation.
• Breaking out of the binary: Issues of authority and tradition versus living with ambiguity and liking it.

**Some examples of these major world events in the last hundred years include the Great Depression, World Wars I & II, the moon landing, the televised assassination of JFK, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dismantling of the U.S.S.R., 9-11 and the destruction of the World Trade Center on camera, embedded press in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street Movement. Technological advances and inventions of the last century include television, transistor radios, decoding DNA, silicon chips, miniaturization and work at the atomic level in diverse scientific fields, personal computing devices, and microwave transmitters to name but a few. My list is puny compared to the catalog of the momentous events that have transpired and the gee-whiz technology that has been invented.

The Worst Feeling of All

I have often wondered why intelligent people with good lives, good families, good livelihoods, and so much to lose, do things that catapult their lives into tailspins from which they never recover and which devastate their reputations, their relationships, and their futures.

Today I read one more example of that. Dipak Das, a University of Connecticut researcher known for his work on resveratrol, the ingredient in red wine that is credited with cardiovascular benefits, has been accused of falsifying his data in over a hundred instances. [Read news story here: http://tiny.cc/kopw7.] Das is the tenured director of the University Health Center’s Cardiovascular Research Center, which receives millions in federal grants. Why would someone so distinguished and obviously successful do something so wrong, making up data and reporting it in his research reports?

A number of years ago, I knew a couple of women, with whom I was active on non-profit boards, who did themselves in, in similar fashion. The untruths started out small, told within a circle of friends, but the crashes were very public and dramatic.

The first woman was the mother of a teenager and an 8-year old. She owned a condominium management business that bore her name. If the rest of us contemporaneous female professionals, who shared similar dedication to our careers and high-profile volunteer leadership roles, wore designer silk dresses, had our hair and nails done at the finest salons, and made generous donations to the most chic charities in town, this condo manager always outdid and outshone us in every instance.

I knew something about the condominium management business, because I had served as the president of a high-rise condominium association and had condo associations as banking customers. It always mystified me how this businesswoman could afford to spend prodigious amounts of money, when I couldn’t spend at that level, and I had a good paying corporate job that paid more than she could possibly be netting in her condo management business.

It was revealed, a few years down the road, that her ability to outdo and outshine us was fueled by embezzled funds from the condo associations which she managed. She turned out to be a criminal, and her felonious actions earned her ten years behind bars. I always wondered how any mother could intentionally do the crime, knowing she would do the time away from her 8-year old, and that those years would be lost forever.

The second woman was a single woman, who worked for a large corporation in a techie position and carried a pager as a badge of self-importance. She was an unabashed self-promoter, who boasted about her management prowess, and none of her friends wanted to doubt her word. Once I received a written article submitted by this techie friend for the newsletter of a woman’s organization, and I was really confused with the disconnect I was experiencing at how articulate this article was, compared to other less accomplished committee reports she had written. Later, after the you-know-what hit the fan, I would realize that she had plagiarized someone else’s work.

A few years passed, and during those few intervening years, there were some other incidents that involved mutual professional friends that raised questions about our techie’s true abilities and claims of high status jobs. One day, this techie woman, who was quite popular, was appointed to an important public position as the manager of a sizable staff. Someone who had been offended by one of those other incidents took the initiative to do some investigative digging, and the dirt came out. It turned out that Ms. Techie Boaster did not have the college degree nor the management experience and positions that she claimed.

Ms. Boaster did a song and dance for the newspapers for a few days, before she finally resigned, having done irreparable damage to herself and significant damage to the reputation of the administration that appointed her. They hadn’t done their homework to vet her, relying solely on friendship to offer her the position. She split town and faded away. My friends and I pondered why this woman had such an overwhelming need to inflate herself and her importance and to do it in public. What kind of self-delusion or arrogance causes someone to believe her own lies so completely that she thinks no one will discover the truth?

I realize that there are all sorts of psychological reasons why people lie and lie publicly. I suspect that those reasons can all be bundled into one overarching reason, which is that they lie and lie egregiously to fill a hole in their lives. That hole is the soul-deep feeling that they are unlovable. The feeling of being unlovable is so invasive in a personality that it overcomes all judgment and common sense, and it also overcomes the ability to recognize when one is, in fact, loved. Feeling unlovable serves to discount everything else and is the worst feeling of all.

Racial Slurs on Receipt Not New News

Sadly, racial slurs on receipts is not new news. It's happened before and made the news, and regrettably, it's probably going to happen again and make the news. One would think that by now, corporations doing business with retail customers in the 21st century would get it and do a better job of avoiding racial slurs in their stores.

Papa John's Receipt

Here is a follow-up to the Papa John's "Lady Chinky Eyes" receipt story. Read the gothamist.com story here. Papa John's corporate office has issued a formal apology and is still trying to reach the customer, Minhee Cho, to present a personal apology directly to her. The franchise owner of five Papa John locations in New York has fired the 16-year old cashier who issued the receipt with the "Lady Chinky Eyes" description in the place where a customer's first name normally would be typed. And the franchisee's operating partner and a manager named Jerome and an assistant manager at the location where this happened still don't get it.

I admit that I have mixed feelings about the punishment fitting the crime, and I'm not sure that being fired for using a racial slur on a receipt rises to the level of a firing offense, with a big caveat which I'll get to later in this commentary. In other words, I'm not out for blood on racial justice issues. I want to raise awareness and change behavior.

Ronald Johnson, the operating partner, expressed his reluctance at firing the cashier thus: "I bet I'll talk to her and she won't know why this is offensive. She needs to know, and she will know. If I fire her, two years from now, she won't even remember why she got fired. If I sit her down and talk to her, I can help her. You still need a certain decorum and level of professionalism [at minimum wage jobs], and that may help her more in the long run." Johnson's comments do reflect an admirable desire to treat minimum wage earners and teenage employees like workers worthy of an investment in their personal growth. Sitting the employee down and talking to her should happen even in the case of a termination of employment; the employee should be given the full reason for the firing.

If this weren't a minimum wage retail job in food service, and if there weren't pressure from a corporate franchise entity with the high profile of a Papa John's and a major outcry in the media [I counted 32 pages on Google of this Papa John's racial slur receipt story just now], perhaps a firing wouldn't have taken place so quickly without other intervening steps. For example, in a bank, car rental agency, or other large company with branch locations that aren't franchises, a written warning and some type of mandatory employee education would probably have taken place, putting the employee on notice that this type of racial slur is unacceptable. 

From that point of view, I agree with Jerome, the manager at the location, who said, "I truly don’t think it’s fair. It’s been taking up all our time. It’s been very disruptive.” that, indeed, it isn't fair. But, it also isn't fair that an Asian customer should be subjected to this type of racial slur when all she wanted was to buy some pizza. It may have been disruptive to the store's employees, but it was also disruptive and upsetting to Minhee Cho, the customer, enough so that she tweeted about it and got the viral ball rolling. And now, Cho says, “I probably would not go there again, because they would probably spit in my food,” and sadly, that is a reasonable concern to have, because as I said, the people at the franchise don't get it, and there is precedent in prior similar receipt stories of retaliation against the customer who complained.

A quick Internet search indicates that these types of incidents are not new news. 

Journeys receipt

In October, 2008, an incident occurred at a Journeys shoe store in a Kansas City mall [click here to see video news report], where an African American man returned a pair of shoes and received a receipt that had "dumb N-word" typed where the customer's name would go. When the TV reporter showed the receipt to people outside the mall, one White man asked, "Has he [the store employee] been fired yet?" A racial slur, in writing, on a receipt for something a customer has paid for, a customer who has chosen to do business with the retailer, is insulting and outrageous, and the gut reaction of the people outside the mall reflected that sense of insult and outrage.

Domino's Pizza receipt

In October, 2010, near Raleigh, North Carolina, a Domino's Pizza customer says she received a receipt that said "N-words don't tip." The store fired the employee, apologized for it and said it was the act of an individual employee. Afterwards, the African American woman customer said that she received harrassing phone calls calling her the N-word and chiding her for getting the employee fired. [Click here to see video news report.]

And as recently as December, 2011, in Irvine, California, two Chick-Fil-A customers received receipts that labeled them "Ching" and "Chong" where their names would have been typed. [Click here to read a news report.]

Chick-Fil-A receipt

Those customers spoke to a manager at the restaurant immediately, who gave appropriate responses, apologizing on the spot. The offending employee was subsequently fired. Chick-Fil-A's corporate office issued an official apology, which showed an awareness of what the issue really is all about: "Please understand and accept our confirmation that the inappropriate, and unthinking behavior of a young team member at one of our restaurants does not support any claim or even suggestion of racism at our restaurant. The individual clearly violated our operating standards; the matter was addressed and discussed immediately with the guests on the spot; and a confirmation was provided that the employee was immediately dismissed for the individual behavior."

The point that Chick-Fil-A makes is important -- that there is and should be corporate operating standards that prohibit racist behavior and making or using racial slurs when working with customers and fellow employees. The disruption that the Papa John's manager talked about is costly to businesses, and it is avoidable with an upfront investment in training. Anti-Racism Training is an important component of both customer service and raising anti-racism awareness in organizations, and I'm deeply committed to providing such education in my professional practice. So, a shout-out to corporations looking for anti-racism training: write me at LelandaLee@gmail.com, and let's talk!

The caveat that I want to make about whether or not to fire an employee who makes racial slurs to customers is this. While being terminated from a job is harsh punishment, especially in today's tough economic and high unemployment environment, the fact is that racial justice progress is made when societal awareness is raised. High profile incidents require appropriate responses, because the responses will also receive a high profile. 

Retail establishments that depend on customers to survive and thrive ought to be held accountable for being places where racism is absent. Such businesses should be responsible for the hiring, training and management of employees who exhibit non-racist behavior. Employees, including teenage employees, should have a sense of responsibility about the nature of the employment relationship when they accept a job. 

Performing a job is serious business, and when employees don't exhibit a serious respect for their jobs, their employers' businesses, their fellow employees and their customers, then they should be held accountable. So, my conclusion is that the firings for the inappropriate use of racial slurs on receipts and the disrespect shown to their customers and employers are justified.

Pews are Just a Symptom

Lutheran Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber of the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver writes in her blog post entitled “The Problem with Pews” about worshiping in the round. She says:  

“This population [her congregation] of urban, postmodern young-ish people have a deep critique of consumer culture and as such are far more interested in being producers than consumers. This goes for church as well. And being able to worship in the round creates an accountability of presence to each other and a shared experience which allows for the community to create the thing they are experiencing rather than consuming what others have produced for them.”

I think Bolz-Weber is onto something – that people are searching for something to belong to, to participate in, and to help create. Bolz-Weber has many ideas about creating a worshiping community organically from mostly non-churchians that are worth examining, and she writes about them in her blog entitled Sarcastic Lutheran. Christian communities can never be about adopting wholesale some other church's idea of how to be and do church, but must always be about creating something authentic where the Spirit speaks to their people and they hear Her. 

In a recent reflection entitled “Seven questions every church should ask,” the Rev. Dr. Gary Nicolosi of the Anglican Church in Canada writes: 

“In fact, I have come to the conclusion that there are no “one size fits all” answers, but that each church will need to develop its own style of ministry in connecting with its own unique environment. This is a “bottom up” rather than a “top down” process that needs to be discerned at the local level rather than imposed by any hierarchy.”

From my perspective, within a denomination (aka a hierarchically organized church), there must be not just accommodation, but true embracing of a dispersed version of church that is authentic to each local context. Bottom up, not top down – much more challenging to manage than a turn-key operation where everything is by the book. In other words, no more cookie cutters, which makes raising up leadership with a different sensibility, one that is not married to vesting authority only in themselves, a prime consideration. This means that the way in which we educate clergy and how seminaries are oriented must also change. You won’t get a new and different church that meets the future by continuing to prepare clergy using old models.

This kind of change will take time and probably be evolutionary, which is going to be too slow for our needs. Times of great change require quicker, bolder responses. Notice that I didn’t say don’t bother with having the discussions with stakeholders and don’t bother having a plan; you still need conversation, and you still need plans. You just need them quicker, and you will most likely have to tolerate conversations and plans that are works-in-progress and good enough rather than finished and perfect. Tolerance for ambiguity is a key attribute that contemporary leaders who will lead into the future will be required to possess.

It would be wonderful if we were able to break out of our self-images and take some risks, recognizing that some choices will work out and others won’t. We also need to lift up and embrace those few revolutionary leaders who come knocking at our doors, rather than sending them elsewhere, because we need to be challenged to become new versions of ourselves. And it just may be the case that some of our beloved leaders and clergy won’t be the right ones to take us into the future. For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.

The challenge is how to support such ministry with sufficient dollars to pay a clergy person and overhead when congregations such as Bolz-Weber's often do not generate sufficient plate and pledge revenue to support themselves in even very nominal settings. Ethnic ministries focused on serving recent immigrants also fall into this category of congregations that are unlikely to be self-supporting based on plate and pledge. We should not forget that ministry to local communities of recent immigrants is also mission work, just as our focus on churches in Africa or Haiti is mission work.

Lack of a "church" home of their own has not prevented Bolz-Weber's congregation from doing some unique ministry, such as delivering gifts of sack lunches to people who have to work on Thanksgiving all around Denver, made from real roasted turkeys and home-baked goodies. [Bolz-Weber's congregation currently shares space at St. Thomas Episcopal Church while searching for a new space of their own.] Lack of financial resources likewise does not prevent ethnic congregations from providing culturally sensitive ministry to their communities. It just looks different, and all the members of the congregation have to work hard and work together to support and serve the community. Food and community meals play a large part in every ethnic church that I know of.

Maybe it's time to question the plate and pledge model of funding as well as the concept of a church home. After all, plate and pledge are not biblical, although the tithing and giving from first fruits in thanksgiving to the Lord are. And maybe as a source of initial seed money for new ministry to the unchurched, we need to look at releasing some of the treasure that we have locked up in church buildings to do the Lord’s work.

I just watched the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Misérables and was struck again by the bishop’s gift of the candlesticks to Jean Valjean, saying “I have bought your soul for God.” I know it’s just a story, but in the story, Jean Valjean’s story was changed by the conversion of the church’s silver. Maybe it’s time to repurpose our beloved church buildings to do more than just serve worshipers once or twice a week and to repurpose our giving to the church to do more than just support the spirituality of those already within our communities.

Nicolosi closed his reflection with:

“Churches that can rethink their assumptions of ministry, reformulate their mission strategy and re-examine their way of doing church are more likely to revive and renew than the ones that do not. These “missional” churches will lead us into the future–confident and resilient, open and affirming, life-giving and liberating, with a compelling gospel message that centers on Jesus combined with flexible methods of ministry.”

Singapore Observations

The Singapore Flyer (like the London Eye), at 165 meters,
is the world's largest observation wheel.

Singapore - Asia's business and shipping nexus

My husband and I visited Singapore in September, 2011. This was our first, and probably our last, visit to Singapore. We had always wanted to visit Singapore, because it is the stuff that dreams and great architecture are made of. Here are some observations about Singapore, not in any particular order.

That's the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus
we took to get a sense of Singapore

It is really hot and humid in Singapore compared to our home in the Mile High Rocky Mountains. Even in relatively “good” Singaporean weather, we sweated our brains out everywhere we walked. Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m overweight and out-of-shape by Singaporean or any standards. In a week, I only viewed two or three overweight Singaporeans in this island city-state.

Food Republic at Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre

Choosing ingredients for the chef to make your soup dish

Chef preparing dish from ingredients chosen by the diner

Prepared dishes at a food stall

Food Opera at the Ion Mall where
there are chandeliers and sculptures

The “hawker” courts (aka food courts) are bits of heaven on earth, especially the upscale ones like Food Republic and Food Opera. For around five Singapore dollars (less than four U.S. dollars), you can get what we call plate lunches in Hawaii that abound with wonderful Asian food of every ethnicity and variety. And the made-to-order iced tea at Food Opera was a true delight, made by a barrista who was handling actual brewing pots and not a complicated cappuccino machine.

The view from the Marriott on Orchard Road where we stayed.
The swimming pool on the left is atop the Ion Mall.

The malls, from glistening marble, glass and stainless steel new ones, to older, funkier ones with roll-down metal doors on each storefront, all devoted considerable floor space to multiple escalators, although not so to benches or other resting places for weary shoppers. Shoppers are never forced to walk to either end of the mall in order to make their way up or down the many-layered malls, often four stories below ground and at least another four stories above. In fact, at the Ion Mall, you could see multiple escalators while riding one up or down. Obviously, with the multitude of malls, there is no lack of entrepreneurial fervor or designer chic profit. The number of jewelry stores with significant inventory both in number and quality of pieces is astounding, as is the number of hair and nail salons in all the malls, especially the more “local” ones that don’t specialize in designer goods.

Inside Tang Plaza, one of the local malls

Singapore is Asian through and through. In many venues, such as malls, the subway and the country’s two casinos, I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of non-Asians, one of them being my husband. The only exception to this was in our hotel, the Singapore Marriott, which had over half its guests being non-Asian, many from Australia. For me, I felt “at home.” I was surrounded not only by people who look like me (except for my height, weight and graying hair), but who also speak Cantonese and English both, so that I felt at home regardless of which language was being spoken by the people around me. Incidentally, it was interesting to note that the English spoken in Singapore is more akin to American English than British English.

A storefront Buddhist worship space in Chinatown

View from Chinatown in a city of contrasts -- pagoda roofs
and high rise public housing

All the women dye their hair. I did not see a single Singaporean woman with gray or white hair. I did see some older ladies with white roots, indicating that they were overdue for a touch-up. So, I was odd not only because of my relative size, but also because I have allowed myself to go gray, although after I noticed this phenomenon, I admit that I did then feel self-conscious.

The shoe stores sell women’s shoes to about an American size 8 from what I could gather when viewing a size comparison chart in one shop. So, I quickly stopped looking to replace a pair of sandals that snapped a strap, thankfully in my hotel room and not while being worn out on the street. I observed many Singaporean women fashionably attired in high heels and dark hose, a look that I failed to carry off even in my younger, more fashionable days, given my penchant for red and purple colored hose.

Singapore is an incredibly clean city-state, and Singaporeans appear to be really careful rules-followers. The signs say, “No eating, drinking, smoking, gum chewing,” and you don’t see any eating, drinking, smoking or gum chewing in public places and especially on the subway. This observation led us to notice that we had not seen a single dog or cat in our week there. We had to Google "pets in Singapore" to learn that there are very strict rules about owning pets in Singapore and where they’re allowed to be.

Herb waiting for our subway train

In a week’s time, we only saw uniformed police officers once, and that was in the subway station underneath the governor’s residence. There was a group of six or eight uniformed officers who had two bomb-sniffing or contraband-sniffing German Shepherds under their control. I tried to take a photo of them with my phone and was warned off by one of the officers. Needless to say, I complied quickly and put my phone into my pants pocket.

Along with not seeing uniformed police, we also saw a great casualness with which people handled their personal belongings in public places such as the hawker (food) courts. It was apparently normal for women to put their purses and packages down at a table and choose a food stall to place their order. No one seemed to worry that someone would walk away with someone else’s belongings. It made us wonder about the presence of un-uniformed police, security cameras and other crime deterrents. We noted that low crime is not the same as no crime.

We were told, and had read, that the unemployment rate in Singapore is very low (2%) and many workers are imported from Indonesia and the Philippines. The notion of adequate staffing in shops, restaurants, malls and hotels is considerably different from what we’re used to in the United States. Here, we have to compete for the attention of scarce retail workers, while, in contrast, we noticed a surfeit of retail workers, hotel wait, maid and maintenance staff, and restaurant servers in Singapore. We also noticed people stationed at some of the escalators to assist people off in the large upscale malls.

There is a lottery system to become eligible to buy a private auto, and the almost 100% license fee (tax) to own a private auto means that only the economically well-off can afford one. To alleviate rush hour congestion, the downtown city streets have overhead electronic signs and toll systems that operate during rush hour, and apparently, all vehicles are equipped with transponders to pay those tolls. The public transportation system is extensive with buses and subways arriving constantly. Taxis are another matter, as we discovered the one night we went to a performance at the Esplanade and then waited over an hour in a taxi queue until we finally got one to take us back to our hotel. Flagging one on the street would have been impossible, as we learned from stories told by other tourists.

The Marina Bay Sands Resort seen from street level --
three 55-storey towers joined by a one hectare roof sky park 

The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Mall

We visited the two casinos in Singapore, both opened in early 2010, and observed some noticeable differences from American Las Vegas-type casinos. Singapore residents must pay an entry fee of 100 Singapore dollars each visit or an annual fee of 2,000 Singapore dollars, while foreign visitors with passports enter for free. Those entry fees don’t seem to deter Singaporeans from gambling though, and we saw only a handful of non-Asians in either casino. You can buy an alcoholic beverage in the bars and restaurants, but inside the casino, you can only get tea, water or soft drinks. There were some table games that were foreign to us, appearing to be Asian card games.

Evening at The Forum gathering and shopping area
on Sentosa Island