Singapore imports a lot of Indian (and other South Asian), SEA, Chinese migrant labor as well, to live in conditions that are not great. I mean, not as bad as emirates, but not that great either:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals...
https://www.economist.com/asia/2021/06/19/singapores-migrant... (recent treatment during COVID lockdowns)
> Food is definitely better in Dubai.
Singaporean hawker centres are pretty world famous.
Singapore has a much better street and regular local/Chinese/Indian/SE Asian food scene.
It kind of does. They import Bangladeshi construction workers to build all the glitzy skyscrapers and infrastructure and shove them in dorms 16 to a room.
Im not sure if they confiscate their passports or not like in Dubai but i think they still do those contracts where they have to pay an agent and work off their debts.
A fair number die because of lax health and safety that is lax because theyre "only banglas".
If there are differences in how theyre treated vs dubai theyre more a matter of degree than character. Theyre very much at the bottom of singapore's racial hierarchy.
Theres the occasional case of maid slavery as well.
A couple more things I've noticed on my visits. Trucks and work vans allow people to ride in the back unsecured. They'd never let real citizens do that in their safer cars.
The airport had an entire separate processing line for the plane from Bangladesh one time when I visited.
I once arrived late at night when the newer terminal was being finished, and leaving the carpark saw rows and rows of shoes. The workers were all sleeping under the carpark exit ramp in the open air.
Those dorms mentioned caused some issues when COVID ripped through recently too.
Yes, most laborers are working off a debt to their agent. Confiscating passports is technically illegal, but very common in practice.
Safety regulations are tighter than in the Middle East, although still lax by the standards of most other developed countries.
People can report labor rights violations to the government, which sometimes even investigates them and takes action. But they are mostly content to turn a blind eye unless something is very egregious, and labor rights NGOS are understaffed and underfunded. And strikes are effectively illegal.
Unlike in the Middle East you can leave the country without your employer's permission, but this might be easier said than done in a lot of cases.
So, more indentured servitude than slavery. Still not great.
In dubai/qatar they just do it more and worse and also like to confiscate their passports (although technically thats illegal now...).
A friend of a friend often quips that the best way to get good Mexican in Boston is to go to Logan and fly almost anywhere else.
Boston needs a proper taqueria, and San Francisco needs a proper pizzeria.
Boston needs proper Thai food, and San Francisco needs proper ice cream.
Etc.
I don't remember where I read it, but one indicator is that when Boston's baseball team comes to Oakland, there are more Boston fans in attendance than Oakland fans.
Mediocre place with such an inflated sense of relevance. I feel like nobody would notice or care if so many aspects of Boston and people from there didn't think people cared.
Our Mexican food's great, though, so we have that going for us.
It’s a very subjective critique… I live in a foodie city and am long tired of overpriced sandwiches splashed with an aioli served for a cool $20, no drink no side.
Went to a no name city for hiking and found a nice hole in the wall shop with great food at a quarter the price and found my kind of foodie.
But some parts of the world just have less access to fresh produce, less cultural diversity, etc. That doesn't seem quite so subjective. And there is good food to be found pretty much everywhere, that is not the point.
I could make the most easiest case that Singapore has better food than Dubai. Just because I said so.
I find them silly and not very useful.
Similarly, "I had the best ramen at this place" or "For authentic X food, you have to visit X" or "City X has the worst drivers" (Literally everyone says that about their city).
I find it interesting the impression I personally formed of Singapore exactly matches the one Gibson did over a decade earlier. I understand how a particular kind of person could see it as a paradise, but personally I found it the most depressing place on earth.