Go posh...and miss S'pore's uniqueness
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Jul 3, 2010 - ST Forum
Go posh...and miss S'pore's uniqueness
IT WAS an honour for Singapore to welcome Mrs Anna Tibaijuka, the highest-ranking African woman officer in the United Nations.
But to have her stand on the top floor of the Ritz-Carlton hotel and declare the city to be 'spectacular', as Tuesday's article reported ('Political will and good policies 'key to a city without slums'' comes across as a bit of a lead balloon.
One could just as well stand on top of a posh hotel in many cities and get the same spectacular view. But in how many cities could one extract that same exclamation if one took a visitor, as I did, to a subsidised housing locality?
Mrs Tibaijuka will be familiar with low-cost housing in many of the world's cities, and she would have expressed the same amazement in parts of Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh or even long-settled Tanglin Halt, never mind the newer and more creatively designed public housing estates.
She would have seen the trees and widespread greenery, the sheltered walkways and the generally well-kept appearance, to say nothing of bougainvillea cascading over the sides of the newer multi-storey carparks.
The world is awash with luxurious city centres, but Singapore has few competitors when it comes to the housing arrangements for those who cannot afford the private market.
An opportunity was missed.
Ann Wee (Mrs)
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ivory tower.
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Jul 10, 2010 - ST Forum
Summit guests savoured public housing too
WE THANK Mrs Ann Wee for her letter last Saturday ('Go posh...and miss S'pore's uniqueness'). Mrs Anna Tibaijuka was in Singapore to attend the World Cities Summit held recently. Part of the official programme included Learning Journeys, which offered delegates and special guests an experience of different aspects of Singapore.
The Public Housing Learning Journey brought participants to heartland areas such as Toa Payoh town, and took them on a visit to our iconic public housing project, The Pinnacle@Duxton. Indeed, there was much interest in Singapore's public housing success story.
Edwin Seah
Director
World Cities Summit -
this kind of cock story also can make it into a national newspapers forum? haha what a joke.
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The people in power are a joke themselves and they keep making fool out of themselves through their money wasting antics and comments.