The Glamour of Travel
That's the Stepford Wife of international cities in the background - Singapore. So clean, so wealthy, so safe its scarily so. Here Government does the best by its citizens whether they like it or not. It a Mogadon induce pink trance of a city. It has traffic but never that much and everyone follows the rules. It has a comprehensive public transport that is clean, cheap and effective (and air conditioned make note Londoners). But it lacks any contrast there's no black to its white, no real flip side visible to the untrained eye. No wonder its such a popular place with ex-pats but it has an asinine, souless feel to me. Cities are dirt and filth contrasting with sharp, clean lines. They are noise and bustle alongside silence and solitude. They are poverty and struggle alongside wealth and privilege.
Which leads nicely into one of the world's true Mega cities - Mumbai. When I mention dirt and poverty alongside wealth and tranquility that's Mumbai. A city of dreams that takes most of those 13 million dreams and slowly, deliberately grinds them into the dirt that surrounds them - whilst taking a very few beyond their own imaginations
Still it is a city. And beautiful it looks from up on the 30th floor. Because here you can admire the beautiful setting, watch the Kites soaring looking for their next meal - as often carrion as not - and look at the fishermen throwing their nets out into one of the world's largest bays. But also because from here you are isolated from the noise of 60000 taxis & innumerable private vehicles in a riot of traffic rather than a traffic system, the all pervading riot of smells assaulting your nose mostly unpleasant, and the overwhelming poverty that is thrust in your face constantly by beggars, street kids, severely disabled humans trading their dignity for the minimum of recompense. The cows in the street, the goats and chickens ekeing out a living on the pavement before their ultimate end, the bright temples and Diwali lights, the small boys playing cricket on the side of an 8 lane highway by the airport. The crumbling concrete of the deco 1930s apartment blocks on the Queens necklace. The gothic Victoriana. The veneer of a anglo-saxon civilisation spread incredibly thin on this asian organism.
Now thats a city
And soon a new isolated luxury cell, overlooking a new city with the same jaundiced eyeblink.
