|
 |  | |
|
|
about Asia Buzz
Asia Buzz: Social Engineering
Singapore's been doing it for years
By ERIC ELLIS
June
27, 2000
Web posted at 2:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 2:30 a.m. EDT
Living in Singapore, one could be excused for yawning about all this human genome stuff. I mean, that arch social engineer (control freak?) Lee Kuan Yew has been busy building Singaporeans for quite a while now. Making people perfect is nothing new here. You only have to wander down Orchard Road for evidence that the Wired Island has for some time had that genetic Book of Life that Bill (Clinton) and Tony (Blair) were getting all excited about yesterday.
|
INTERACTIVE |
|
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to
TIME
|
|
I mean, Peter Weir could've filmed The Truman Show here, with the Mr Singaporean as Truman, and Lee and his agencies as Christof, the Ed Harris character. Everybody seems quiet, non-threatening, orderly, neat, healthy, good teeth, well-muscled and well-dressed (somber but stylish tones unlike those garish Versace-loving "honkies"). The races meld into a uniformity difficult to pinpoint. Is that person Euro-Malay? Indian-Chinese? A "cosmopolitan?" It's hard to say, and who cares anyway, now that it's been proven that we are all created equal? These people are perfect, and on a sunny day at a Starbucks outlet (triple shot to get me through the Singaporean day, please) around Tanglin Mall, Singapore seems a lot like that fabled Disney community in Florida, Celebration, USA; Disneyland with the Death Penalty.
| |
ASIA BUZZ |
Asia Buzz: It's Not Fair
Please let one more guy get rich quick
- Monday,
June 26, 2000
Culture
on Demand: Perfect Score
Ryuichi Sakamato is music to my ears
- Saturday,
June 24, 2000
Walkabout:
Damage Control Comes to Paradise
Fiji -- beautiful one day, dangerous the next
- Thursday,
June 22
2000
Asia
Buzz: Comfort Zone
Singapore, take a good look in the mirror
- Thursday,
June 22,
2000
Subcontinental
Drift: Farooq's Folly
Or, how bad leaders can undermine good ideas
- Thursday,
June 22, 2000
|
|
ASIAWEEK |
|
|
But living in a uniform, politically lobotomized theme park makes people-watching pretty uninteresting, which is why Singapore will never be Paris (even though Orchard Rd has been twinned with the Champs Elysees!). Except late on a Saturday night, when it seems some of the genetic experiments went awry. Around buildings like Orchard Towers, you see large potbellies, often attached to Western expatriate oil workers in search of beer and broads. You see suicide-blonde prostitutes with names like Porntip or Natasha ogling innocent Sri Lankan guest workers who listen intently to sex advice doled out (for a fee) by Singaporean snake-oil salesmen. And--shocking!--young men, young Singaporean men, in Armani, holding hands, and lining up to get into clubs. Surely that wasn't in Lee's genetic blueprint?
"Today we are learning the language in which God created life," enthused U.S. President Clinton at the White House, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair beamed on. Blair, of course, is a Singapore enthusiast. He visited the island a few times while he was opposition leader and said Britain had much to learn from Singapore. Was he trying to tell us something even then?
Blair and Clinton also reminded the world yesterday that there were considerable ethical, legal and moral dilemmas associated with the genome project Does that mean the world's legal system will suddenly be inundated with Singapore-style libel suits? Experts worry whether the open standard for genetic mapmaking will lead to a race of superhumans. Now that's something that could interest Singapore.
For further information--and those maps--of the Human Genome Project, I suggest you log into two American sites. You can find Celera Genomics at www.celera.com/ (which even has a link to Motley Fool to explain what the HGP means for the Celera share price) and the project itself at www.nhgri.nih.gov/HGP/. Its British counterpart can be found at www.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk/.
I looked and looked for the Singapore Genomics Program site. There is one, a $40 million effort across academia and government on the island. But sadly I couldn't find it. A missing link, so to speak.
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to TIME
Write to TIME at mail@web.timeasia.com
TIME Asia home
|
|
LATEST HEADLINES:
|
Click Here for the latest regional analysis from TIME Asia
|
|
|
