Harry Stemp was born in Uxbridge in 1934. He started his career with the Uxbridge Times-Journal as an apprentice typesetter at age 14. He soon began writing sports for the Times-Journal and eventually owned 10 community newspapers in central Ontario including the Times-Journal. He started writing his award-winning Stemp’s Stew in 1965. The column came to an end shortly after he sold his newspaper chain in 1989, but was rejuvenated in 2006 when Harry became a regular contributor to The Cosmos.
World class
Before I discuss my time in Singapore I omitted some interesting bits of information about Dubai in the last Stew. The country has no income tax. Certainly foreign news to Canadians and residents of many countries, but it would be music to our ears if it were to become a way of life in Canada. My horse racing fan/friends will be interested to know that the Royal Family sponsor international races every year and these are attended by thousands of racing fans. To give you an idea of the interest in the sport the viewing stands hold 60,000 fans and are 1.6 kilometres long. Speaking of size the popular Dubai Mall is the size of 50 international soccer fields. A lot of walking and not for the faint hearted. It is estimated that the myriad of gold markets in the country contain $4.5 billion in gold. Automation is top of mind as they have a large monorail system and the cars are computer operated with no driver. Only one conductor. Again I mention one can be excused for thinking they could be visiting Disney World instead of a world class city.
In Singapore we found wonderful accommodation in the Somerset Apt. Hotel. I wasn’t aware these apt. hotels existed. They can be found in many large cities around the world. You can reserve 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units each with 2 bath and a full kitchen. Being together in the 2-bedroom apt. made it great for rehashing the day’s activities and laying out the next day. Better than being in separate hotel rooms and meeting in the lobby for those discussions. It was also centrally located beside the Singapore River which is always busy with tour boats and lined on each side with a huge selection of bars, eateries and boutiques. A few steps from our accommodation and we were right in the heart of all the action. And paying at least half of what two hotel rooms would have cost was not hard to take.
Singapore is a very modern and interesting city with a population of 5.8 million and has been nicknamed “The Lion City”. Hate to break the news to our Quebec neighbours, who will be very upset, but in Dubai, English is the second language and you heard it spoken everywhere; as well, street direction signs were in English. The language is taught in all schools although students can choose a second language to study if they wish.
In Singapore, English is the first language and seen on all street signs and interesting attractions as well as businesses. Spoke to one person at our hotel and she said, “Why not, it is the language of most of the world”. Again, students can learn a second language of their choice in schools. An important lesson for our government as well as members of the Parti Quebecois. If you want to be a world class province/city, English is your first language.
In 1941, due to the weak defenses of the country, the Japanese attacked Singapore and took control of the colony on 15 February 1942. The country was renamed to Syonan-to (pronounced as Sho-nan-to), meaning Light of the South, during the rule. People of Singapore went through hard times during the Japanese rule. Many were tortured or killed by the Japanese for not following new rules properly or they were suspected of going against the Japanese. This suppression and torture lasted until the surrender of the Japanese in September 1945. Singapore was returned back to the British.
The hard times during World War II made the people think the British were not as strong as before. Therefore, many people wanted independence so in 1963 Singapore joined with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form the new nation of Malaysia. Malaysia is a country with many races. In Malaya, only the Malays have special benefits. For example, the Malays can get university education more easily than other races. As most people in Singapore are Chinese, Singapore wanted equality for all the people of Malaysia. Singapore also wanted a common market to be set up so that goods to Malaysia would not be taxed. However, this was not done and caused arguments between the state government of Singapore and the federal government of Malaysia so Singapore separated from Malaysia and became independent on 9 August 1965.
The legal system of Singapore is based on English common law, however with large and important local differences. Trial by jury was completely removed in 1970 leaving judicial judgment done completely and only by judgeship. Singapore has punishments that include judicial corporal punishment in the form of caning for rape, rioting, vandalism, and some immigration crimes. There is a mandatory death penalty for murder, and for certain drug-trafficking and firearms offences. In a 2008 survey, international business executives believed Singapore, together with Hong Kong, had the best judicial system in Asia.
Again we opted for the 2-day hop on-hop off bus trip and as mentioned a great way to acclimatize yourself to the layout of the city. There is so much to see and one of the highlights is the Bay Harbour Building which houses a large number of stores and two casinos. Since I wasn’t carrying my passport I was not allowed access which was not a problem as I am not a casino fan. However the structure is so impressive and one soon realizes the area must attract a lot of wealthy patrons as all the stores are very high end.
The food was excellent and, rather than spend big dollars in high end restaurants, we went to the food courts that the locals use and enjoyed all the dishes (names we couldn’t pronounce) at long tables with the locals. To me this is the way to meet the people and understand their daily way of life. And we sampled the delicious foods they enjoy every day.
One thing that is not hard to get used to and appreciate is how friendly and considerate the people are. This was brought home many times as one of our party had a sore hip and rather than slow the whole group down I arranged for a wheelchair. Anytime I appeared to have a small problem, young and old were very anxious to come to my assistance and always with a big smile on their face. I would like to think they would find the same in our large cities but not so sure it would happen. I was amazed at the amount of construction taking place as I counted 12 buildings heading to the clouds and, although the streets were not as quite as clean as Dubai, they would still put our cities to shame with their lack of litter and graffiti. One gets the idea that there are serious penalties for these offenses.
After a wonderful 4 days in Singapore we boarded the bus to Melaka and will tell you all about our interesting time in that city in my next Stew.
Must mention I heard from a reader who has a son working in Singapore and she sends a message that should be heeded by all of our weak ‘politically correct’ politicians – “Harry I was also in Singapore for Christmas last year and it was amazing. I have never seen such elaborate decorations and everywhere it was ‘Merry Christmas’. I did not see a single "Happy Holidays". And this is in a country where Muslims hold a large majority”. Nuff said.
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Hardly ever agree with anything the Parti Quebecois government plans for Quebec, but one can’t help but agree with Premier Pauline Marois’ plan to table major anti-corruption legislation in view of the damning reports coming out of the construction corruption inquiry. Marois says she will not wait for the results of an ongoing public inquiry to make changes to the rules for tendering public contracts. The government plans to make it more difficult for companies linked to wrongdoing to win public contracts, reportedly not just in the construction sector but also in areas like information technology.
It has not been an easy start for the PQ government which is serving with a minority. They were forced to backpedal on several files after statements from ministers on education policy, taxation, language and shale-gas development and it appears to face a particularly intense struggle to get its fiscal policies through the legislature. The party has promised to scrap a $200 health tax — but it hasn't won any opposition support for its planned tax hikes that would replace the lost revenue. One such promise is to toughen the province's language laws. The PQ has suggested it could extend enrolment restrictions at English educational institutions to junior colleges and, perhaps, even to daycares; it has also talked about applying language rules to smaller businesses. She says new language laws are required to halt the decline of French following the latest federal census figures. However those figures show that the number of Montrealers who use only French at home has dropped seven percentage points over the last decade, to 39 per cent. However, that change stems from immigration and urban sprawl — not necessarily from a shift towards English. Stay tuned. Interesting times in Quebec these days.
