From ‘Yeah, Singapore is boring: STB hits back at Timeout city ranking’, 2 Feb 2018, article in CNA
Is Singapore one of the least exciting cities in the world? The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) begs to differ – and released a tongue-in-cheek video on Thursday (Feb 1) to respond to the charge.
On Tuesday, Singapore came in 31st out of 32 cities in an anonymous survey by Time Out, which took into account criteria such as culture, food, drink, friendliness, liveability, affordability and happiness. About 15,000 people across the 32 cities took part in the survey.
Singapore was named “the worst rated city” for culture, and the worst for drinking apart from Dubai.
Saying Singapore, or any country, is boring is like saying watching MRT trains alighting and boarding passengers is boring. There will always be some people fascinated by it regardless of your useless opinion. No matter how much you want to add to the ‘vibrancy’ of our cosmopolitan state, the Casinos and the Jewels, we will always be viewed as unhip and sterile by marijuana junkies, Hare Krishnas and cowboys.
But what’s new? What would you expect for a small country? How much fun can you cram into this clusterfucked city?
We’ve been boring for 30 years. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked us as one of the most boring countries in the world in 1987. More boring than IRAN and LIBYA. At least our stagnant night life today isn’t accompanied with bomb blasts or machine gun fire. At least if you’re not into watering holes or human company, you could hop on a train in the city and reach a mangrove swamp within an hour. Yes there’s not much that would excite you if you have a week to kill, but give her a day and there may be surprises in store. And if it still doesn’t thrill you, you could fuck off to somewhere ‘grittier’ where people spit on the pavements, piss on the walls or shit on the streets.
So really, there’s no need to be defensive about it. We cane criminals so instinctively we’ll be cast as party-poopers. Let Singapore be boring as a 50 year old marriage is boring, with the occasional orgasm to keep us going.
Filed under: 1980s, 2018, Tourists | Tagged: stb, tourism, Tourists | 1 Comment »