Melissa's Asian Adventure (Part 1 - Singapore)

I am embarking on a 10 day solo trip to Singapore and Hong Kong. We tried to work it out so Sean could join, but given he had just taken several days off for the Bailey's trip and I needed to go in October, we just couldn't make it work. Fortunately, I was able to ease into it by going to Singapore first ("official" language English). I had a packed schedule of meetings with IT, Compliance and Legal executives to discuss our plans for further expansion into the region. I also met with the CEO of one of our business partners to discuss some new, mutually beneficial opportunities.

Given the flight was $10,000 cheaper if I flew in on Sunday, I did that. This gave me the opportunity to explore the city a bit. Singapore is an "international" city. Meaning city=Singapore, state=Singapore and country=Singapore. There are not many historical sites to see given the newness of the city and their policy to knock buildings down every 99 years. Singapore is very wealthy, with a very generous and well structured government. 85% of people live in high rise public housing (97% of people in public housing own the unit); 10% in private high rise apartments; 5% in houses - if you live in a house you are filthy rich (foreigners are not allowed to buy houses). Singapore is the most densely populated city in the world. There are 4 million people living in 600 sq km. 40% of that is reclaimed land (they filled the ocean in with sand to make more room). There is no unemployment. If you don't work, you don't get paid. There are enough jobs for everyone and training available to help people get them. They do not understand the American way. Everyone is required to save 30% of every paycheck. This is used to buy apartments and for retirement.

While there are a lot of Westerners living in Singapore now, most of meetings were with people from either Singapore or Malaysia (singapore is not part of malaysia). This is not that surprising. What is surprising was the number of women executives I met with. (This country would have no problem accepting Hillary!) In my time in this job I have become quite skilled in recognising the person I'd be meeting with - profiling if you will. I would have been wrong every time this week. My last meeting of the week was over lunch with the General Counsel of one of the largest companies in the world - a woman. So I asked her about it. She explained it to me quite simply. In Singapore you are required to complete high school. Because women are smarter and more hard working they get into better colleges and since they are smarter and work harder they get better jobs and beacuased they are smarter and work harder they get promoted more quickly. We got along beautifully! That is until the end of the meal...
Well, she took me to a Japanese restaurant. Since moving to Australia I've become much more open to "different" food; however, this was pushing it - there were a lot of things on my plate I didn't recognise and there was so much of it. I thought I did a good job. When the waitress came around to ask if I was finished (I assumed that's what she said - I really had no idea) and I said yes, my host said, "oh no she's not" and made me eat it all!!!! Mental note: no more lunch meetings in other countries.