Which brings me to another point: Does it matter that, like global cities elsewhere, there is a lavish lifestyle too? How does such conspicuous consumption affect ordinary Singaporeans? We get a glimpse of this "world" and its anecdotal effect on others in blogger Kirsten Han's piece below, which appeared on insing.com's website:
Posh life of S’pore’s super rich feels alien
by Kirsten Han
It was an article that raised quite a few eyebrows among Singaporeans.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that there is an exclusive circle in Singapore, where the people have no trouble paying S$26,000 for cocktails that contain diamonds in their drinks.
And there are 20-somethings in this same group who own private jets or an A380 that has its own basketball court and pool.
It raised eyebrows precisely because it sounded like a mystical, fantastical place unfamiliar to the average Singaporean.
Thing is, it isn’t even hard to get there – physically.
Hop on the Circle Line to Marina Bay, then take a short trot to the nightclub called Pangaea and you will find this group of people, who have a very different lifestyle from your man-in-the-street.
Pangaea is just one year old, but it is also one of the world’s most expensive and most profitable clubs, the Wall Street Journal reported in the article titled ‘Wealth Over the Edge: Singapore’.
I cannot help but feel for those on the other side of the edge after reading the piece.
Starting with the foreign workers who built the Marina Bay Sands. To them, Pangaea might as well be on a whole other planet.
THE FORGOTTEN BUILDERS
Noorashikin Abdul Rahman, an advocate for migrant workers’ rights with Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), recalls many cases of migrant workers from the Marina Bay Sands project approaching non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for help.
“The workers worked an average of 12 hours a day and were made to do overtime even when they were tired,” she wrote in an email in response to questions. “If they refused, they were penalised.”
Noorashikin continues: “They were not paid what they were promised in China. The employers were not transparent about calculations of wages and the workers felt shortchanged.”
In December 2008, a group of some 200 Chinese migrant workers gathered at the Manpower Ministry over wage issues. Some of them had been working on building the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort and casino.
Migrant workers may not find themselves very well off even after settlements have been reached with their employers.
“Since there isn’t a minimum wage and a lack of transparency in the calculations of wages, some of the settlement that was arrived at meant that the workers’ hourly wages worked out to be S$2.50 or even less per hour, given the number of hours they worked,” Noorashikin claims.
Those migrant workers most likely never saw the Marina Bay Sands and Pangaea in all their glory.
The same goes for many Singaporean families, such as that of Liyana Dhamirah.
LOOKING IN FROM OUTSIDE
Liyana lives with her three young children in a two-room public rental flat; one for which she had to wait about three years.
Her family has a monthly household income of about S$2,000 – hardly enough for, say, a haute couture dress in a high-end boutique.
She has been to the Marina Bay Sands, but only looked at it from outside: “I don't dare to step inside at all as it seems way too expensive!”
She was taken aback after reading the article, saying: "I would have believed that such lifestyles were (of) the rich and famous in other places such as in Miami and Hollywood, but definitely not in Singapore.”
Of course, one could argue that the ongoings at Pangaea are likely seen as extreme, maybe even obscene, displays of wealth not just in Singapore but anywhere else in the world.
Yet, there is no denying that the relative wealth of Singapore, a city where there are as many malls as MRT stations, promotes consumerism and attracts those who think nothing of letting material excesses run their lives.
Take a glance around Singapore’s shopping belt and one will see the many boutiques with branded handbags, dresses and shoes behind gleaming panes of glass.
BRAND IMAGE
Pangaea’s clientele can’t be the sole customers of these boutiques, and they aren’t; there are plenty of people in Singapore willing to fork out their money for swag.
Rachel Xie, 24, says she often goes for branded bags, spending anywhere from a few hundred dollars to S$2,000.
“I think the attraction lies in the image that luxury brands convey – each brand has its own distinctive quality, for example, Chanel suggests the image of evergreen class, while a Balenciaga could be cool, sporty-chic,” she says.
“By carrying a particular bag from a particular brand, I'm associating myself with the image that I want to project, or simply put, I'm branding myself.”
Still, wanting to own branded goods doesn’t mean that she gets to throw money about like the super-rich.
Xie refuses to use a credit card to buy branded goods, preferring to save up so that she can pay the bill right away.
Singapore often appears in the news next to superlatives: richest, wealthiest, least corrupt, most emotionless, etc. It paints a picture of a homogeneous place, where everyone lives the same sort of life.
It doesn’t take a genius to know that this isn’t in the least bit true.
The Wall Street Journal article also acknowledges this, highlighting that Singapore’s income disparity is the second highest in the world.
While partygoers at Pangaea may afford their Herve Leger bandage dresses with ease, Singaporeans such as Xie find themselves working hard each month to afford buying one bag at a time.
Others, like Liyana, don’t even think about it.
And the migrant workers, they continue to slave away under the sun, hoping for little more than a decent wage and fair treatment.
EVERYONE AFFECTED DOWN THE CHAIN
Different though the lifestyles may be, at the end of the day, everyone inhabits the same island, and what happens to one class inevitably affects another.
As the Wall Street Journal rightly points out, the flow of money into Singapore has had the side effect of ever-increasing property prices which ultimately hit all residents.
In catering to the super-rich, Singapore has inadvertently turned into a harsher place for everyone else.
And if the bubble bursts, it may be easy for the ultra-wealthy to hop onto their A380s and fly off in search of their next shindig, but what of those left behind?
While economist Yeoh Lam Keng does not think Singapore will suddenly lose all the wealth built up by previous generations, he acknowledges that a financial crisis would be a “significant” risk, especially with the property bubble as big as it is.
“It could be very painful especially for the ordinary citizen who has most of his net worth tied up in his HDB (government-built) flat,” he says.
The question now is whether Singapore can be a place that entertains billionaires without “punishing” everyone else.
(Kirsten Han is a journalist, filmmaker, blogger and activist with an interest in social issues, especially those in Singapore. She is now a Masters student in journalism, media and communication in Cardiff University, and blogs at #spuddings and http://spuddings.net)
(The views and opinions expressed by the author and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of insing.com and SingTel Digital Media Ptd Ltd.)
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It so happened that ST carried two stories today (Mar 13) that were about the wealthy too...
There was an earlier article last week that gives us an idea of the earning power of the top one-tenth of households here. But what has not been revealed is the earning power of the top one per cent which I am sure is many, many times $30,000...
But there is of course no definite correlation between wealth and conspicuous living. One can be poor but spends like a king, and one can be rich but spends miserly.
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