Singapore: Day 27

On Thursday, I had more than 6 hours of sleep! It felt wonderful and refreshing, because I had not had that much sleep for a very long time. I continued my own independent work at lab today.

Everyone originally made plans to go bowling today, but I opted out for the Singapore Spotlight Talk later that evening. I enjoy attending talks and learning about the tensions and solutions of a society. Perhaps it is an interest cultured by my attendance for the World Affairs Council when I was in high school, but either way I am heavily interested in world affairs. The talk was titled "Population, Foreign Labour and Liveability-- Singapore's Future" and delivered by Professor Paulin Straughan, the professor for our sociology seminar. The talk started at 6 PM and took place at University Town (which is quite a distance from PGP), so I left work a little bit earlier to buy pastries as well as make the journey over to UTown. I fell in love with the black sesame pastry from yesterday's dinner, so I stopped by the Smith Street Food Centre on the way home from work to purchase two more black sesame pastries, a sweet green bean pastry, and a salty green bean pastry. I did not end up leaving early enough to accommodate both the pastry adventure as well as the trip to UTown, so Emily and I ended up arriving a few minutes late into the talk. When we first saw the room and its deficiency in attendees, we were hesitant to enter, but in the end I am very glad we did. The talk was extremely interesting, and I found it amazing that the fertility rate could have such a huge impact on a society. Singapore has a low total fertility rate, which has a huge impact on population, foreign labor, the Singapore economy, the workforce, etc. The solution to the problem may be to increase the fertility rate, but there are so many underlying factors to it such as gender relations, the traditional role of women at home, modernization, etc. It was a riveting talk, and I asked questions about the role of adoption in the fertility rate as well as the acceptance of abortion in Singaporean society. Surprisingly, abortion is legal in Singapore because, as said by Prof Straughan, "we protect our women." Men can easily leave the situation, while women are stranded with a child, which is why Singapore allows for abortion. I admire Singapore's dedication to equality, from the legal status of abortion to the female-friendly approach to increase the TFR.

After the talk, we trickled outside for refreshments. These refreshments turned out to be a full-fledged dinner, much to our surprise. We were grateful for the delicious food, because we had either skipper or had small dinners, and it was wonderful to eat in the company of other professors and professionals.

After we finished our food, we brought several boxes back to PGP for tomorrow's breakfast.  There was plenty of food left over, and the professionals urged us to not waste the food and bring it home (Singapore allows food to be out for a certain amount of time, and afterward restaurants must throw away their food.) Because it was getting late, Prof Straughan gave us a ride back to PGP in her car; it was my first and only time riding a personally owned car in Singaporea! It was truly an amazing and educational night!