Is the old Singapore better than the new Singapore.

I remember when S'pore made a foray into medical tourism with govt support, starting from 2003 with the launch of the "S'pore Medicine" initiative. The aim was to position SG as a major international healthcare destination. Unfortunately, greed took root in both our private specialists and hospitals such as Mount Elizabeth and Gleneagles who routinely overcharged these wealthy foreign patients, till we priced ourselves out of the region. The medical tourism sector died a natural death. It seems that the powers that be have not learned their lesson about greed and overcharging.
If the leaders are greedy, the greed culture of the country would cultivate everyone in the country to be greedy too!
 
If the leaders are greedy, the greed culture of the country would cultivate everyone in the country to be greedy too!

The Chinese proverb: "If the top of the pillar is crooked, the bottom will be distorted" means that if the leader sets a bad example, those below them will follow suit. It emphasises the importance of good leadership and setting a righteous example.

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Back in 1982, my Dad said that in new towns like Ang Mo Kio, Clementi, Bedok and Toa Payoh, a 4-room flat cost around S$52,000.
 
The Chinese proverb: "If the top of the pillar is crooked, the bottom will be distorted" means that if the leader sets a bad example, those below them will follow suit. It emphasises the importance of good leadership and setting a righteous example.

View attachment 221912
上樑不正下樑歪!but he seems to have been promoted in the recent reshuffling, lol!
 
Back in 1982, my Dad said that in new towns like Ang Mo Kio, Clementi, Bedok and Toa Payoh, a 4-room flat cost around S$52,000.
You need to mention, earning $1K+. My parents repaid their flat within 14 years, a 4A cost only $40K+. Now, I last heard 30 years repayment????
 
The Chinese proverb: "If the top of the pillar is crooked, the bottom will be distorted" means that if the leader sets a bad example, those below them will follow suit. It emphasises the importance of good leadership and setting a righteous example.

View attachment 221912
Basically 上梁不正下梁歪
Hopefully the new 5G leaders won't be crooked.
 
Singapore from 2007 onwards, when social media platforms, 3G mobile and smartphones came together to truly break PAP monopoly on the mass media by making SPH irrelevant.
 
This gentleman has an excellent write up about the Good Old Singapore hawkers
Anyone leemember the Ordchard Road carpark hawker centre and the Boat Quay hawker centre

Walanweeiiiii makes me feel sad leemembering my youth in the good old Singapore and reflecting if I could have done much better belping others

An incident that always comes back to my mind was when I was having lunch behind Sultan Mosque from a always very busy Malay stall selling various food items, including my then favourite dish of ikan bakar barbequed over charcoal.

A trishaw man came looking extremely distressed. He went straight to the bin where everyone threw their remainder food. He foraged the bin and collected chicken bones etc and sat beside his trishaw and began eating. I was thinking - Should I tell him to buy what he wants, get him a plate of food, etc but then again the thought came to my mind what if he gets angry unhappy and raises a scene, etc etc. I greatly regret my lack of action to this day.

However, on the other hand it was an excellent lesson for me too.

Since then I have never looked the other way when someone asks for money, food etc etc. or if the person is on the other side of the road, I will go over to give the person some money. That incident I believe was a lesson to me by the Unseen.


Singapore’s Vanished Markets and Hawker Centres

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Remember Singapore

https://remembersingapore.org/2012/08/27/singapores-vanished-markets-and-hawker-centres/

In October 2011, the government announced plans to build ten more hawker centres over the next decade. Since the early seventies, hawker centres had become part of Singapore’s unique culture. The mid-eighties saw some 140 markets and hawker centres located all over the island, although the number now stands at around 100.

Wet markets, on the other hand, are the main sources of fresh produce such as meat, fish, vegetables and fruits. However, they are gradually losing their clientele due to the competitiveness, convenience and cleanliness of supermarkets. Today, the large wet markets that are still going strong include Chinatown Complex Market, Empress Market (or Farrer Market), Holland Village Market, Tiong Bahru Market, Tekka Centre, Toa Payoh Central Market, Ghim Moh Market and Geylang Serai Market.

From Street Hawkers to Hawker Centres

Hawker centres were first built in 1971 as part of the government’s street hawkers resettlement program. Before hawker centres, street hawkers had to constantly face the wrath of di gu (National Environment Agency inspectors), and customers were exposed to hygienic issues. After several food poisoning and epidemic cases, the Environment Ministry decided to clean up the streets.


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Yung Sheng Food Centre at Jurong was the first hawker centre to operate in Singapore. It proved to be a success, clearing the doubts of the street hawkers and prompting others to follow suit. The hawker centre was later merged with Corporation Drive Food Centre and Corporation Drive Market to become Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre.

In 1985, Jurong West Street 52 Block 505 Market & Food Centre was the last hawker centre to be built, and a year later, the last street hawker was successfully resettled.

Between the late seventies and early nineties, many hawker centres were renamed as (cooked) food centres, but many still preferred to call them by their old names.


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The former Telok Ayer Market, Singapore’s first ever market, had its history dated all the way back to 1825. It began as a simple wooden structure standing next to the sea, so as to allow goods to be loaded and unloaded directly to the boats. Due to the land reclamation of Telok Ayer Basin, the market was demolished in 1879, but was rebuilt five years later by James MacRitchie (1848-1895), the Municipal Engineer, who retained its iconic octagonal shape but changed its building materials to cast-iron.

Despite being conserved in 1973, the market had to be dismantled in 1984 due to the nearby tunneling of the MRT system. It took more than five years before the market was reassembled and reconstructed, sticking to James MacRitchie’s original design. It finally reopened in 1991 as Lau Pa Sat (“old market”).


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Other prominent hawker centres in Singapore are Maxwell Road Food Centre (originally Maxwell Market since 1935), Tiong Bahru Market (since 1955), Newton Circus Food Centre (since 1971), Chomp Chomp Food Centre (since 1972), East Coast Lagoon Food Village (previously East Coast Hawker Centre, since 1978) and Pasir Panjang Food Centre (since 1978).

In the eighties, the Chinatown Complex Food Centre was the largest hawker centre in Singapore with an astonishing 803 stalls.

Currently, the markets and hawker centres in Singapore are largely managed by three entities; Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR), Housing Development Board (HDB) and Jurong Town Corporation (JTC).

Below are some of Singapore’s vanished markets and hawker centres (not in alphabetical or chronological order) in the past decades.

Orchard Road Market (1891-1982)


The almost century-old Orchard Road Market was a firm notable landmark located at the junction of Orchard Road and Koek Road, where Orchard Point is standing now.

orchard-road-market.jpg


The land where Orchard Road Market once stood on belonged to early nutmeg plantation owner William Cuppage in the 19th century, whose estate was later inherited by his son-in-law Edwin Koek. Both Cuppage Road and Koek Road were named after them.

orchard-road-market-1978.jpg


In 1890, the Municipal Authorities bought the land and built a new cast-iron market which had extensions and wings added over the years. Its iconic six metre tall fountain, made in Scotland, was brought over from Telok Ayer Market in 1902. The fountain accompanied Orchard Road Market for some eighty years before it was shifted again to Raffles Hotel.

Orchard Road Market was an extremely popular place for fresh produce in the sixties. In 1982, it was demolished by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in a bid to transform Orchard Road into a prime shopping district.

Orchard Road Carpark Hawker Centre (1966-1978)

Located at open-air carpark next to the Specialists’ Shopping Centre, the Orchard Road Carpark Hawker Centre, also known as Glutton’s Square, was one of the most popular makan places in Singapore.


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The street hawkers pushed their wooden carts, generators, cooking utensils and pails of water and set them up in rows in the carpark after it was closed at 5pm everyday. The feasting usually lasted from dinnertime to suppertime in the early morning, sometimes till 5am.

By the early seventies, the place had reached its peak of popularity, especially among young couples, families and tourists. In its later years, Glutton’s Square, however, gained an unwanted reputation of being a “carrothead chopping” place for foreigners.


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As many as 80 stalls were selling delicious local delights at cheap affordable prices, such as Hokkien mee, char kway teow, bak chor mee, satay, bak kut teh and orh luak.

Despite being popular with the customers, Glutton’s Square was constantly bothered by overcrowding and hygienic issues. In 1978, the government decided to close it, and relocate the hawkers to the Newton Circus and Cuppage hawker centres. The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) tried to revive the nostalgic charm of Glutton’s Square during the Singapore Food Festival 2004. Lasted until early 2005, the event was met with overwhelming responses, although the prices of the food had risen dramatically as compared to the older days.

Boat Quay Food Centre and Empress Place Food Centre (1973-1993)

Boat Quay Food Centre was built in 1973 with a splendid (some said smelly) waterfront view of the Singapore River filled with tongkangs and twakows. Tongkang and twakow are Malay and Hokkien/Teochew words for bumboat.


boat-quay-hawker-centre-1988.jpg


The purpose of the hawker centre was to accommodate the street hawkers plying their trades at Hallpike Street near the original Parliament House. Now defunct, Hallpike Street was named after Stephen Hallpike, an English blacksmith who arrived here in 1826 and founded the first shipyard (or boatyard) in Singapore.

Enjoyed by the working class in the city, the hawker centre offered many delicious and affordable food, and it was particularly famous for a stall selling beef kway teow.

In 1983, due to the construction of MRT work, some ninety hawkers from Boat Quay Food Centre and Empress Place Food Centre were shifted to a temporary site named Empress Place Transit Food Centre off North Boat Quay. Boat Quay Food Centre itself was demolished by the mid-nineties due to the redevelopment plans to turn the place into a trendy spot for wine and dine.
 
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