Raffles

Raffles (Thursday, 13^th)

Sitting in a café in the lush and aristocratic old British quarter (in the vicinity of the Raffles Hotel), makes me realize how wide the gap is between the colonial / cosmopolitan centre of S’pre and the largely Asian ‘Heartland’.

The Raffles itself is the mirror to Clementi’s “everyday” ness: It’s columns, lawns and fountains ooze an older, more contested time when the British ruled on Cunard lines, shot tigers in exotic places, and drank gin mixed with Brandy and local fruit and sugars (the Singapore Sling, invented at the Raffles by a local Bartender, in 1919). Amidst the black and white photos in the hotels’ small museum are pieces of Singapore of yesterday – only pieces of which still exist (in pieces). As it happens,  I missed the Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge by only a few hours – unaware that they were in Singapore until I saw reports from a British paper.

This coffee shop could just as easily be in London, with a view of such a mix of people, shade trees, and Victorian architecture. An orthodox Jewish couple and child in the queue are a testament to the cultural diversity of this district, the former Colonial precinct (probably always largely for and by non-Asians).