Singapore

Last night Jeni begged me to join her for dinner with some local friends of her mother's. They are people that her mother either went to college with, or worked with. I can't remember.

She told me that they are really old. They wanted to take her out for Indian food before she left back to the US. She was really stressing about this. She told me that she has met this people two times before for dinner. Each time she invited a friend of her's to join her and each time they stood her up.

She also said that they can be rather boring and like to be in bed by 8 or 9.

Well... I was hungry. But I didn't feel like paying money for dinner. She assured me that they were buying, so I agreed. But on the condition that I could take my car so that I don't get stuck with them in the middle of nowhere.

They arrived on time and we all drove down to the old part of Fremantle to an Indian restaurant in the old fire station. The upstairs was converted to a youth hostel, and the downstairs is this restaurant. They even have the old firepole still up (you can't use it). The food was awesome and Jeni's friends eat there often enough to know a good thing.

Jeni was right. They were old. In their late 70's to some eighties if I had to guess. They were two married couples. But they were certainly not boring. On the contrary, I had an excellent time and was sorry that I had to go home later.

One couple were English, but moved to Perth 20 years ago. His name is Robin and he works as the vice-Dean of the University or Notre Dame here in Fremantle. It is a small private university affiliated with the big ND in Indiana. He also works as the comptroller for a small oil industry firm.

They were fascinating. He was born and raised in British controlled India, which explains his odd accent. He went to college in the US and in the UK. He and his wife used to live in Singapore for before moving to upstate New York to work at Cornell University for a few years. After Cornell they moved to Perth.

They really enjoyed living in New York, except for the winter cold finally drove them away. I don't blame them. After living on the equator in Singapore for years, getting used to the extreme weather in the US can be a shock.

They loved Singapore. They were there before it became the overcrowded metropolis it is now. She claimed that she can not even recognize the island anymore.

Robin had a lot to say about Singapore's history over the last 50 years. We discussed the lack of personal liberty of Singapore, and what it was like when they lived there. They claim that Singapore has opened up a lot in the last 5-10 years. Their friends back there now can say things in public that you could even think about saying in the past.

In the mid 70's after Saigon fell, there was civil war in Malaysia and Indonesia. Communists and non-communist's fought for control of SEA. Indonesia started grabbing neighboring islands by force. Singapore was staunchly conservative and anti-communist. In order to keep it that way they became a tightly controlled police state. Sort of an iron fist in a velvet glove. They tolerated no dissent or leftist sympathy.

He said that in the mid 70's Singapore had signed security treaties with the UK and Australia. Singapore was scared that it was going to be attacked and swallowed up by Indonesia or Malaysia.

That big brother attitude was never really abandoned. That is why Singapore is the way it is today.