It was a long taxi ride, at least by Singapore standards, so there was plenty of time to chat with the driver.
We discussed the new casino. And the government’s mind-boggling plan to double its population from 3 to 6 million. (To house them, high-rise apartment buildings were springing up everywhere you looked, on landfill that extended the island into the sea to create more building space.)
Wow, I said. Most countries these days worry about too much population growth. But naturally Singapore had everything firmly under control: the selected migrants would be young professionals who would contribute to the economy, raise their families there and become good Singaporeans.
We talked about Singapore’s economic miracle, and how quickly it happened. When the island state became independent in 1965, its standard of living was pretty much the same as Malaysia’s. Today it’s a first-world city in every way, and its economy equals that of Malaysia — which is 478 times its size.
The driver said that his kids simply couldn’t grasp what life had been like when he was young.
“My village,” he said, “was where Changi Airport is now. Right on Runway Two.
“It was just an ordinary village. In those days there was no electricity; if I wanted to visit my friends after dinner I had to take a lantern. My kids have no idea. They’re Singapore kids. They have iPhones.
“To me, it wasn’t that long ago. But it doesn’t seem real to them, because Singapore is all they know. So I drive them across to Malaysia and show them a little village.
“And I say: see? It was just like this.”
