SEMESTER AT SEA - SINGAPORE

Email #6 - March 29, 2002

This is the sixth report on my experiences teaching in Semester at Sea, on a semester-long voyage around the world. I am emailing by satellite from the ship. This report discusses email problems, Delhi Belly, Singapore ethnic flavors and history, Singapore fines, additional fieldtrips, red light districts, creativity in Singapore, churches & temples, and meeting Patch Adams.

EMAIL PROBLEMS

Email on the ship is very expensive, $30 per hour, but it has generally been available. Email on the shore is much cheaper, $3 to $8 per hour, but it is not always convenient. In Cuba it was downtown, in Brazil it was next to the ship, in South Africa it was a short walk, in Mauritius it was a water taxi ride away, in India it was downtown with long lines, and in Singapore it was downtown again. Downtown usually means a half hour taxi ride, so there is a trade-off between time in port and money on the ship. However, it's great to have email available around the world!

However, there was a problem with the Internet satellite antenna before India, which couldn't be repaired until Singapore, so there was a delay in sending my report on India.

DELHI BELLY

We were warned that the port with the greatest likelihood of intestinal problems would be India. After visiting a Dalit village and a farm village, I was pleased that I hadn't gotten sick. But the second night after we left India I woke up with severe stomach cramps and diarrhea, which everyone calls Delhi Belly. I was so weak and light-headed that I stayed in bed all day, asking someone else to conduct a discussion of India in my class that met that day. Of course, that was the day we had a fire drill at 5 PM, which meant putting on long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a life vest and standing in rows by a lifeboat. I couldn't stand up and had to slump on the floor while they took roll call.

After taking Imodium to stop the flow and Cipro to fight whatever bug I might have, I was able to walk to my two classes the next day. But I was weak for two more days. I went to bed early so I would have enough strength for fieldtrips in Singapore. When I started eating food again, it was amazing how good the food tasted - I really appreciated flavors that I had taken for granted before.

During the two nights before reaching Singapore, crewmen were on Pirate Watch as we traveled down the narrow Malacca Strait between Sumatra and Malaysia! They had fire hoses ready to drive off any approaching boats. That strait has the highest incidence of piracy in the world, with 77 people having been killed and robbed last year. But usually they prey on yachts not larger ships, and we had no problems.

The night before we arrived in Singapore a group of women on board presented a play called the Vagina Monologues. It was written by a woman who interviewed other women about their feelings about their bodies and their sexual experiences. The play consists of the interview responses presented as monologues by different actors. It was very effective in addressing many issues.

SINGAPORE ETHNIC FLAVORS AND HISTORY

Singapore is a city-state on an island just off the tip of the Malaysian peninsula. When we docked there on March 25, we were next to the Singapore Cruise Center, which was like an airport terminal with a tunnel that extended out to the ship. Across the street from the terminal was a food court that had two dozen stalls selling Chinese and Malaysian food. My wife and son and I went on a fieldtrip called Ethnic Flavors of Singapore. Our first stop was the Spice Garden at Fort Canning park where we saw Cinnamon trees, cloves, and other spices. Next was Little India where we sampled Indian food. We also explored Chinatown and other areas of the city.

Singapore was founded in 1818 when an Englishman named Raffles obtained permission from a Malaysian Muslim Sultan to develop a trading port. Chinese also came as traders. Indian convicts were brought there by the British. Raffles designated different areas of the city for Chinese (Buddhists), Malays (Muslim), and Indians (Hindu). Each group built temples. Singapore remained a British colony until the Japanese conquered the island in 1942. In 1945, the British returned until 1959 when they left again. In 1963, Singapore joined in a federation with Malaysia but they were kicked out in 1965 because the majority in Singapore was Chinese and that affected the balance of power. Today 77% of the population is Chinese.

Since 1965, there has been rapid industrialization. The city has many beautiful skyscrapers downtown and expensive stores everywhere. Our tour guide said that the first traders came to Singapore to make money, and money is still the primary value. The city is even more commercial and materialistic than the U.S. It is very clean and safe. There are no slums and very little homelessness since the government provides subsidized housing in high-rise apartments. There also are more-expensive private condominiums. The way you can tell them apart is that the government apartments have bamboo poles sticking out holding laundry to dry, while private condominiums do not allow these poles.

SINGAPORE FINES

The government is democratically elected but since 1965 has been dominated by one party, the DAP, which won 82 of 84 seats in the most recent election. There is no opposition, and everyone is afraid to criticize the government since that might result in losing one's job or being arrested for minor offenses. The many fines include the following: smoking in public buildings S$500, Not flushing a public toilet S$150, Spitting on the sidewalk S$1000, Littering S$1000, Bird feeding S$500, Selling chewing gum S$500, Eating or drinking on the subway S$1000, unnatural sex S$1500. One U.S. dollar is worth 1.7 Singapore dollars so these fines are substantial. Repeat offenses result in jail sentences that might involve being caned, like the American teenager who sprayed graffiti on cars a year ago. The government does a great deal of social engineering and controlling of behavior, which some like and others resent.

ADDITONAL FIELDTRIPS

In the evening of the first day My wife, son, and I went on the Night Safari. After a buffet dinner, we boarded a tram (like the trams on the back lot of Universal Studios) and rode through various habitats where we saw many different kinds of animals including lions, tigers, rhinos, and water buffalo.

On the second day, the three of us took a bus downtown to Orchard Road where there are expensive department stores and U.S. food outlets like McDonalds, Burger King, the Hard Rock Cafe, and Planet Hollywood next to the Hilton Hotel. We went there to use an Internet Cafe and catch up on our email. We then took the subway to Raffles Place near the Marina Bay, where we were surrounded by tall skyscrapers with interesting architecture. We were there to buy Japan Rail passes, then ate lunch at a food court with a variety of ethnic foods before taking a bus back to the ship. We found that the buses were double deckers with television sets receiving signals by satellite - at first it was a technological marvel, but then it became a noisy annoyance.

RED LIGHT DISTRICTS

That evening I took a group of students on a fieldtrip on Gender and Sexuality led by a professor from a local university. More than 100 wanted to go, but I had to limit it to 40 students giving priority to those in my classes.

The local professor took us to a women's center where we learned about their lobbying efforts with the government to provide more rights for women. We then visited two Hindu temples, one dedicated to the goddess Kali and the other dedicated to the god Shiva. At both temples, we happened to be there when priests were conducting devotional rituals. We then went to the low-end red light district near Serangoon Road where we saw transvestite prostitutes, and a pimp became mad at us for bringing a large group through the alley there. So, when we went to the high-end red light district in Geyland Lorongs which was larger, we broke up into small groups to wander down the various side streets.

Prostitution is regulated in Singapore like everything else. Sex workers have health checkups every month and those with disease are quarantined. But in addition to the legal prostitutes, there also are illegal ones such as those in Health Centers. Since it might be embarrassing to visit the red light district, there are Health Centers in shopping malls around the city where a businessman might go for a massage. But during the massage, he is asked if he wants a "special" service.

In the red light districts, there are red Chinese lanterns and red banners. Some of the brothels are labeled Dance Studios. In the open window above one of them we could see a naked couple. A few students walked into the brothels just to look around and saw women inside with numbers to identify them. They were quoted a price of S$40, about $25 US. The pimps wouldn't let the female students in and became annoyed when the male students left without purchasing any services. The final stop on the tour was a gay bar, where a couple of guys sang karaoke songs in Chinese.

CREATIVITY IN SINGAPORE

The third day I went on a fieldtrip to two schools, while my wife and son went to the zoo to observe primate behavior for my son's evolutionary biology course. The first school was the Methodist Girls School in a suburb that had individual houses which is very unusual since 95% of the population lives in high-rise apartments. The school had beautiful buildings with modern computer labs and science labs. It had both a primary school (grades 1-6) and a secondary school (grades 7-10).

Students must past an exit exam to graduate from primary school and this exam determines which secondary schools you are eligible to attend, a four-year college preparatory school or a five-year school which might be vocational. Another exam at the end of secondary school determines whether or not you can go on to Junior College (grades 11-12), and still another exam determines eligibility for the university. At the university, you study only one subject as is common in European schools, since the schools here were originally set up by the British.

Some primary and secondary schools are government schools while others are government-aided schools. The latter receive a fixed amount per pupil that is comparable to what the government schools get, but the latter can charge a higher tuition rate. Government schools charge S$10 per month fees on the philosophy that you value something more if you have to pay for it. Government aided schools might charge as much as S$100 per month. Each school has some freedom to determine its own curriculum, but since the students must pass national exams at each level, the subject matter is determined by the exams.

After lunch on our own at a mall, we went to the Tanjong Katong Secondary School, which was coed. I was very impressed with the creative way in which the teachers at the Methodist Girls School approached teaching. Each member of the math department talked to us, and described hands on math activities and group projects. Some students led us on a tour of computer labs and science labs, where I noticed that they use the workshop approach to teaching physics, in which students learn concepts by doing experiments instead of only listening to lectures and doing math problems. A similar approach is used at Whittier College.

That evening I went to a performance of Allegria by Cirque du Soleil. I had seen other productions by Cirque du Soleil in Los Angeles and Hawaii and knew that it would be very creative. The producers are French Canadians from Montreal and have highly imaginative costumes and acts. Instead of circus animals, the acts are primarily acrobatic. As expected, the show was delightful. While I was there, my wife and son went on a fieldtrip to Sentosa, a small island reached by overhead cable cars that went above our ship. There they saw an aquarium with an underwater tunnel. The island also has other tourist attractions.

HISTORIC CHURCHES & TEMPLES

The last day in Singapore, my wife and I went on a fieldtrip to historic churches and temples. We saw the Thian Hock Kong temple, which was Daoist. There incense sticks are burned to send messages to the spirits. I took a picture of the incense sticks burning in an ancient urn with the Singtel (Singapore telephone company) skyscraper in the distance, to show old and new ways to send messages. Next was the Mariamman Hindu temple, which was built by convicts from India. Nearby were shops that had been opium dens in the 1800s.

We also visited the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd where there was a church service to bless oil to be distributed to the other three Catholic churches in the city. We had some pie in the parish hall at St. Andrews Anglican Church, and then saw the Sultan Mosque, both of which were also built by convicts from India. Finally, we saw the Hajjah Fatimah Mosque, which had a church steeple instead of a minaret! It was sloping 6 degrees (reminiscent of the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy), since it was built on landfill. Indeed, the current shore is 2 kilometers from the original shore.

These religious and ethnic groups live peacefully together. However, we did see some evidence of racial discrimination. One of the students looked inside a brothel and was offered his choice of several women, but when he left and two Indian men approached; the Chinese pimp told them that no women were available. Other students observed that the busboys and manual laborers were usually Indian while the managers were Chinese.

MEETING PATCH ADAMS

One of the inter-port lecturers between Singapore and Vietnam was Patch Adams. In the movie in which he is portrayed by Robin Williams, it is indicated that his conflict with his professors in medical school was due to his humor. But he said that it was because they were arrogant and he was opposed to the Vietnam War. As I write this, we are sailing down the Saigon River on our way to Ho Chi Min City (Saigon), Vietnam.