A few people have been asking me about what it's like to live here and whether we like it, etc...
After having a short discussion with Shirley last night, I penned down a few thoughts.
[Edit: This post was edited to make it more relevant over a longer period of time. Joe, 1 Aug 06]
The wordy explanation is below but I thought it might be useful to actually put down all the stuff that's good and bad. This is not a criticism of Singapore, Australia, or anyone in particular. This is just our perception of things as we see them. Accordingly, we're not saying that anyone should choose as we did because of the following reasons. These are just aspects that apply to us and no one should make such a choice without weighing out the consequences. To paraphrase a comment I made before "It's not a better country or a worse country, it's just a different country, and it just so happens that the differences appeal to us."
Maybe in another year, we'll look at it again and decide these things aren't relevant, or even more so.
[Matrix goes here..]
Environmental: Hot hot hot vs Four Seasons ? It’s not a difficult decision. Apart from the variety in looking forward to different times of years, there’s the added novelty of fashions, as well as activities. Every year around this time, we’d be looking forward to our ski trips. In Spring, tulips and flowers, and general outdoor activities such as horse riding, walks in the park, etc.
The air is generally cleaner, there’s the occasional fog, but not haze. We both breathe better. In this respect, it’s hard to see a downside, unless you consider spending more on catering to the extreme temperatures (too hot - must buy air conditioner, too cold – must turn up heater) One big factor in this temperature thing, we are generally less irritated. Have you ever kept a cool head while squeezing into a thick, warm crowd at the CNY pasar malam ? *ugh*
Economic: Melbourne alone has a population equal to that of Singapore. As a state, Victoria has a diverse economy that goes from infrastructure, services, resources, etc. There’s less of a need to focus everyone on one particular area (i.e. Life sciences) because. This means more types of jobs, better pay and better opportunities, simply because there are fewer people going for the same types of jobs. Translate any given job from Singapore here and more often than not, you’re looking at a 20% increase at least.
With the economy doing well though, inflation tends to go up, which pushes the cost of living higher. The property sector boomed recently making houses more expensive, but it’s still manageable.
But looking ahead, I’ve noticed that Australia tends to align itself with America or Asia, depending on who’s growing quickly. So it’s well placed to capitalise on the growth of its trading partners which ever direction they might be.
Structural / Government: No, we’re not anti-PAP. In fact, PAP organs are far more efficient than the slow-poke system here. But we do like the welfare benefits. We can see a doctor without paying for anything (except medication). Giving birth to a child is free. This becomes more important if we can bring our parents over. Medishield looks at how much you have. Medicare looks at who you are.
As a PR, we have pretty much the same rights and benefits as a citizen, save for a few things which aren’t important to us at the moment (voting, working in the military, etc). When something happens to an Aussie PR overseas, the Aus govt actually does something about it.
However, with the benefits also come the expenses. Income taxes in Australia are horrendously high. In the higher income brackets, it adds up to easily 50-75% more than Singapore. They have brought it down 3 times in the last 2 years which is promising, but there’s a good chance they will bring it down further.
Socio-Cultural: I hate to admit it, but Singaporeans are “nouveau riche”. As a young country that has seen prosperity, Singapore has grown wealthy too quickly, so much so that we don’t know how to behave maturely. A lot of social ills have come about as a result of this, primarily competitiveness. As a child, you’re often asked to “see what that ah-boy is doing, why can’t you be like that ?”. We compete in so many ways, better school, branded clothes, bigger car, bigger house, bigger paycheck, club membership, frequent travelling, etc. Accordingly, we take out installment loans to pay for things we don’t need.
Sure, in Australia, people compete too, but there are much more definitions of being ‘better’, not to mention far less emphasis. There’s a sense of equality. Whether you’re a doctor, or a miner driving a BMW or a 20-year old datsun, people will still let you into the lane, if you’re turning in from a side road. It’s called giving people a ‘fair go’ and it’s this same culture that gives us both opportunities to achieve personal goals (such as Shirley doing vet studies or entering medical school)
Admittedly, one concern we have is discrimination and being ‘second-class citizens’. Having said that, I can honestly say I don’t feel any better being a ‘first-class citizen’ in Singapore. I guess I’m basically saying that the benefits are marginal. Moreover, more migrants are coming into Australia and the diversity in Melbourne means that people don’t need campaigns about racial harmony because it’s already built into the culture.
Another big factor is the education system. Having gone through the education system in Singapore and being mediocre performers, we’ve both seen the difference between Australian and Singapore ‘outputs’ and we both agree that we prefer what Australia covers. Aside from the slower pace of learning, there is a greater variety of things to study. Shirley wouldn’t even have the option of medical school in Singapore because the system cannot cater to it. There is a strict, tried and tested format of selecting only the ‘top’ candidates (based on a policymaker’s definition) to go through ‘O’s, ‘A’s and Uni. Basically, there’s no second chance.
Personal Relationships: This is the most ‘iffy’ factor. Having been here for less than 10% of our lives so far, all our friends, families and loved ones are in Singapore. Given enough time, we might build more of a support structure here in Australia but for the moment, because we have less ‘obligations’ to spend time with other people, we have more time for ourselves. More time to rest and to reflect. Of course this doesn’t mean that our relationship is where we want it to be, but at least we have the time to work on it.
Of course we’d like to see more of everyone but at the moment, that’s something that we can live with for now.
