For this series, The duty takes you behind the scenes of major reports by its journalists in 2022. Alongside photographer Valérian Mazataud, Alexis Riopel has helped shape an image of this Southeast Asian city-state in people’s minds.
When you go to Singapore flying over the Pacific Ocean, a day vanishes. We’ll pick her up on the way home, like Phileas Fogg. In the meantime, the trip to this country with futuristic appearances will indeed seem shifted towards the future. An impression that is sometimes genuine, sometimes attributable to the efforts of the State to imprint the image of its success on people’s minds.
As soon as we arrived in the city of the lion, photographer Valérian Mazataud and I were struck by the magnificent 40-meter waterfall falling from the glass ceiling of a shopping complex adjacent to the airport. The walls of this hemisphere are otherwise covered with greenery. Sore from the 24-hour plane ride, we then hop on the Singapore metro to go to the Geylang district, where we will be staying. We are already seeing the formidable efficiency of the public transport system.
Last winter, it was an article from Agence France-Presse that piqued our curiosity about Singapore: the country treats its sewage – including urine and excrement – to make drinking water! Little by little, we understand that the undemocratic city-state is forced to innovate on a multitude of aspects to deal with its territory and its limited resources. In September, a few weeks before our departure, we find the working title of our report: “Singapore, laboratory of the future. »
During our first days there, we visited the Pinnacle@Duxton, a social housing complex made up of seven 50-storey towers. Judiciously located near the city center, this impressive achievement, dripping with modernity, is popular with tourists who want to be amazed by Singapore. We also see the Marina Bay area, built entirely on new earth, complete with a sophisticated freshwater reservoir that we are told is the envy of engineers the world over.
For 12 days, Valérian and I are looking for the best stories to tell to illustrate the “lessons of Singapore” in terms of food production, urban planning or transport. We line up visits and interviews at a rapid pace, crossing the country from end to end on multiple occasions. Every evening, I transcribe my handwritten notes on the computer to keep a legible record of our experiences. We eat in the hawkers centersoutdoor food fairs.
Quietly, we also begin to see behind the facade. When night falls, South Asian men flock to the streets of our neighborhood to drink beer and watch videos on their phones. These temporary residents take advantage of the little rest they have after grueling days of work on construction sites. In the parks, women, usually Filipino or Indonesian, look after the children of Singaporeans. Without its 1.5 million temporary workers, the country would be dysfunctional.
The smooth running of Singapore is also crucially dependent on the sand it imports. One day, we see huge dunes by chance in the Bedok district: it is the country’s strategic sand reserve. It’s like being at the foot of the Sahara. The resource, imported by barge from elsewhere in Southeast Asia, is used to enlarge the island at the expense of the sea, but also to carry out the incessant construction work necessary for the flashy architecture of the downtown. An essential cog to maintain the luster of the idealized country that has been on display before our eyes since our arrival.
“Singapore is the model par excellence for most emerging countries that want to accelerate their urban development,” explains Laurence Côté-Roy, a Quebec geographer doing a postdoctoral fellowship at the National University of Singapore. The “model” of which she speaks does not reflect the absolute reality of the country. Rather, it is an abstract construct, fashioned by a “very proactive” state to showcase its successes. Parapublic consulting firms welcome foreign delegations, often African, who come to observe the country’s urban and industrial achievements. Some countries, such as Rwanda, then “buy” the Singaporean model.
Now, Singapore is getting richer and is gradually becoming “an unattainable model” for emerging countries, according to the young academic. The government now wants to export its recipe to new horizons: the rich countries. “If you came here, it’s because Quebec says to itself: Ah, maybe we could learn from Singapore! ” points out M.me Cote-Roy. As journalists, we were first drawn to the country’s carefully crafted image, and with our reporting we in turn help shape it. It was therefore necessary to propose an image of Singapore that could help Quebec adopt a more sustainable and prosperous trajectory, without neglecting to show the limits of the model.