Disparities in Singapore

(From Mary Bohan)

Its been five weeks since I’ve been in Singapore, and one thing that has become more and more apparent since arriving in this small island nation is the discrepancy that exists between the rich and the poor. Singapore has gained status as one of the wealthiest nations in the world in the past few years, and by 2010 it will have more millionaires than Hong Kong. Walking along Orchard road past boutiques of all of the top fashion houses, with Ferraris driving down the road, you could easily believe it. A friend of my family is living in Singapore as an expat due to her husband’s job, and through my few encounters with her I’ve seen the lifestyle of the machine gun guarded American Club and luxurious homes. It’s easy to assume that everyone here has it easy.

What I’ve found even more interesting is learning about the lives of those who are working every day to make ends meet here. Walking down the street at night past construction sites where the new train station is being built, there will be foreign laborers working past 11 at night, and you can see groups of them driving around, 20 or so on the back of a truck, clearly not the safest of all conditions. A few weeks ago I would up alone in a housing project in Singapore, trying to find a bus ticket to Malaysia, and was surprised by the conditions, with cockroaches at my feet and men calling out to me. It seemed to be an entirely different country than the Singapore I was used to, and opened my eyes to how diverse a country it really is. Even more extreme is the poverty seen in Indonesia and Malaysia, where one taxi driver told me that he had never left the small island that he lived on, and that he could barely support himself driving his taxi 48 hours straight with a 12 hour break every three days. And he has to be one of the more fortunate individuals.

In terms of healthcare, however, I have yet to see so much fragmentation. The lab in which we work is a few minutes away from the National University Hospital, one of the top hospitals in the country. There are no beggars or visibly unhappy individuals around the hospital; everyone seems very calm and satisfied. Apparently the government pays for around 80% of the basic public healthcare services, and has a system of mandatory health savings accounts to ensure that everyone is prepared in case of an emergency. The hospitals are required to publish a price list, in order to facilitate comparative shopping for treatments. I know my dad would love to see something like this in the United States, as he always notes how there is rarely a set price for any procedure at home. The Singaporean government only spends less than 3% of its GDP on healthcare, compared to the 15% that the US government spends. The results are amazing, as Singapore has a lower infant mortality rate and a higher number of years of average healthy life expectancy than the United States.