By Catherine Ling,
Michelle Bong, Alisa Chopard, Christa Yeo, Hatta Aziz, Yuen Yi Ying
and Larry Loh, CNNGo Singapore City Editor.
The little red dot heard
round the world proves that size doesn't matter.
Singapore
= Food. The city-state dominates the 'net with food blogs where
hungry netizens compare, dissect, argue and swap foodie fodder,
scouring the island for new tastes. And nearly every conceivable
victual from every earthly corner has a home here. Fancy authentic
Egyptian Baba Ghanoush? Arab Street's got you covered. Crave
something Nigerian besides a scam e-mail? Find it on Verdun Road in
Little India. If it's edible and fits on a plate, bowl, banana leaf
or sheet of paper, we'll wolf it with zeal. But if you truly want
to sample Singapore's food culture, head to any of the hawker
centers in the heartlands -- there's a huge variety of stalls there
at dirt-cheap prices.
Which
is the greatest city in the world? See who Singapore is up against
on CNNGo.
Singapore's a Garden City, literally. Amid the concrete jungle
we call home, there's the Botanical Gardens, HortPark, MacRitchie
Reservoir, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve -- each claiming myriad
varieties of flora and fauna. But the most common impression left
visitors to Singapore concerns the rows of trees that line roads
everywhere, from expressways to suburban streets. It's not just a
green facade -- Singapore's a champion of environmental
initiatives, from the world's largest CNG refueling station to its
first Solar Greenlots for electric vehicles.
Find out
how CNNGo made 'Emerald City - the sustainable eco-lopolis of the
future
No
one in Singapore, regardless of political stripe, has anything but
a healthy respect -- perhaps even awe -- for Minister Mentor Lee
Kuan Yew. He led Singapore to independence in 1965 and served as
its first Prime Minister for 31 years, setting the record as the
world's longest-serving Prime Minister. He's the architect of
Singapore's present prosperity, laying a foundation of
nation-building which has taken Singapore from a sleepy little
island to one of Asia's most developed states, despite its small
population, limited space and lack of natural resources.
From
clever to creative, talented to thought provoking, find out who
makes the Singapore Hot List of people to watch.
Singapore has one of the best health care infrastructures in the
world, with various dignitaries and royals from the region
patronizing local hospitals -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe
even slipped in quietly for a 'secret cancer check-up' in 2008. The
health care provision system is also one of the world's best, so
good that some say it beats the proposed ObamaCare model.
Singapore
is the first F1 venue to host
a night race on its streets, and will do so for several
years to come. The inaugural race in 2008 also earned the
city-state an unfortunate distinction for being the one in which
Team Renault boss Flavio Briatore ordered Nelson Piquet to crash,
giving teammate Fernando Alonso the win. It's now known as the
Singapore 'Crashgate' scandal -- which might lend some cred to
Singapore's squeaky-clean image.
Time magazine called Singapore the global paragon of water
conservation. Through sheer effort, and more than a little
desperation (Singapore imports less than half the population's
water from neighboring Malaysia with agreements set to expire in
2011 and 2061), the island turned to desalination technologies to
provide for thirsty citizens. The result is NeWater, which is
non-potable wastewater filtered into high-purity H2O that can be
used for industrial development and even drinking.
The
Singapore chili crab is famous. Despite what the Malaysian Tourism
Ministry claims, the dish is distinctly Singaporean, as evidenced
by the Singapore Chilli Crab Festivals staged all across Europe.
Madam Cher Yam Tian created the succulent recipe in 1950 and it's
now the unofficial national dish of a food-loving nation, with
restaurants and coffee shops serving it by the ton nightly.
It's the unofficial 'first language' of most Singaporeans and
one that would bewilder the remaining English-speaking world.
Singlish is the creole of choice for citizens, cobbled together
from various influences including Queen's English, Bahasa Melayu,
Tamil, dialects such as Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Bengali,
Punjabi and even a smattering of various other European, Indic and
Sinitic languages. Word of warning -- if you don't know it, don't
try it. It'll make you sound sillier than we already do. Eh, dun
pray pray ah ...
Curious about white boy
Singlish and how to speak it. Read more on CNNGo
Thanks to its minuscule size, Singapore has the infrastructure
to support island-wide 3.5G mobile and wireless internet access.
According to Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA),
there are 6.5 million mobile subscribers (as of July 2009), making
for a staggering 140-plus-percent mobile phone penetration rate,
and over four million in wireless broadband subscriptions. This is
why you'll see Singaporeans with their attentions dedicated to
their phones, rather than their environment.
There's
a Singapore-wide campaign for everything -- Be Courteous, Speak
English, Speak Mandarin, Stop Dengue, Save Water, Stop Littering,
Be Kind, Don't Spit, and Stop At Two are just a warm-up. We'd go
on, but that would violate the current Stop Prattling campaign.
-Fri Apr 16 13:08pm
wat crap listing is this?? y is our country always self-loathing
greatest this and that..number one this and that..and i see point
num 3 i dunno wether to laff or cry..
