Singaporean journalist and academic Cherian George called his book The Air-Conditioned Nation, and Singapore’s Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew once said air-conditioning is possibly the best invention. Ever. We’re talking better than that astronaut ice cream (NASA space technology that freezes ice cream into cardboard-looking pieces that taste like real ice cream in space). We’re talking better than television, or the car, or the twinkie food group – all things seemingly dear to Americans. Is it any wonder that Singaporeans love to be indoors in sub zero air-conditioning? Or as we lovingly like to say, AIR CORN?
When you grow up in a one-season climate that is essentially hot and humid, it is a refreshing change to have seasons. You mean the leaves turn yellow? You mean I don’t sweat the minute I step out of my shower? You mean…Wait, you want to what?
Yes, the person wants to go out into the sun. Not under the trees. Nor in the cool shade of a building. Into the blazing sunlight without any form of cover. For the purposes of gross generalization and stereotyping, I will call that person the “Sun Worshipper”. There are many who love the sun here and who will find ways to be directly under the sun no matter how hot it is. Perhaps this is what they call Summer Fever. It was hot in Seattle today. Not humid like in Singapore, just hot, the kind of sun that sears your skin slightly and makes your hair prickle. You in a tropical country, you know what I mean. Given a choice to have a discussion indoors, in the shade outside or on the open grass under the sun, guess where the Singaporean wants to be? However, when one is outnumbered by said “Sun Worshippers”, it is best to just go along and enjoy the burn.
This happened to me once before, when my graduate class in New York City voted to conduct the lesson outdoors one sunny day. It was a re-education for me on what the sun meant to different people. Singapore is comfortable: Where you can’t walk to in air-conditioning, you can at least walk to under the balmy shade of large trees. Some of my proudest moments in Singapore involved finding an air-conditioned/shady route from one place to another, deftly escaping direct sun rays.
The sun was hot, humid, baaaad. The sun is still hot, not as humid, and I’m discovering, not so bad. But give me my air-conditioning any day. You can take the Singaporean out of Singapore, but it’ll take an Ice Age to take the Singapore out of me.
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