Bayfront Integrated Resort set at S$1.2b
The Singapore Gahmen has just priced the initial bid offering of the IR project at Marina Bay for a hefty S$1.2b. Bidders alert!
When the IR proposal was inducted earlier this year, the casino compartment sparked off a series of controversial debates over concerns of moral leadership, religious indignity and social afflictions. Religious groups, in particular, the local Christians and Muslims, voiced their abhorrence towards gambling - often depicted as an active denial of God's material plans for His people. There was also a sizeable population of our folks in favor of the project, citing it as a propulsion engine for the future of our economy. The Gahmen elected to approve of the proposal and reiterated their assurance that it would implement measures to prevent our garden city from a progressive meltdown into a degenerated betting hub.
My initial stance on this IR proposal was that it was detrimental to our society, which emphasized strong ethics and collective unity. Wouldn't the presence of casinos be contrarian to the utopia that we had been attempting to build over the past forty years? Besides, it is no secret that gambling has resulted in the destruction of family units through history. Profitability and economic incentives should not be uprooting our ethics.
On hindsight, however, I also realized that I was being naively idealistic to have borne such sentiments. Suppose Singapore had eventually opted to scrap the casino proposal, great, we'll probably have stoppered a potential inlet for habitual gambling. Religious groups would be appeased, and social normity would resume.
However, what if other cosmopolitan cities such as KL, Shanghai and even Bangkok decided that they would relish a chunk of the global casino pie? This could result in a decline in our charisma and tourism arena, as Singapore would be no better described as a mundane skyscraper city with two 'durians', a beautiful airport (who cares?) and an overwhelming presence of HDB pigeonholes? I may be stretching it, but what if the absence of a casino industry really hits us in the long run? Livelihood may be impacted to a certain extent, and we may even experience a gradual recession since tourism contributes a significant proportion to our GDP. I guess this is where we have to strike a balance between pragmatism and moralism. :-)
posted by draco_malfoy!!!! @ 12:06 PM
3 Comments:
well, i believe there are always alternatives to a country's economic growth.. since we want to be the hub of many things, we might be able to position ourselves as an excellent place of important meetings, conventions and exhibitions, etc... and of course there are various other avenues that i believe we can look into...
I guess the crux of the matter is whether we trust that God would bless our nation because we honour Him or whether we see material well-being as something to be pursued by our own devices rather than being conferred upon by God. (Matt 6:33) Actually, we face this very real struggle at the individual level often as well. =)
That would have worked if the key perpetuators, i.e. top leaders of our nation, were keen Christ-followers who believed that God's hand was real and would be adequate to sustain the nation. Then the only option would be to shelve the concept again since it would have been a very easy decision to make - there were no immediate disincentives for annulling its implementation.
Incidentally, when I was at the Bible talks by ARPC over lunchtime today, Pastor Christopher Chia lamented that people in contemporary times are so fascinated by metropolitan progress of our beautiful cities that they tend to attribute global and national advancement to the brilliance of mankind. Do cities such as New York, London, Washington D.C. and Paris come across as ungodly? Far from it! They appear to be intrinsically blessed places, each with more churches than the membership population in Hope. However, terrorism has struck these cities; riots have pervaded; they have been shown to be equally susceptible as many third-world regions.
He also pointed out an interesting fact. When S11 hit America in 2001, the global stock market nosedived, and this resulted in the Black Monday event. Four years later, we still see widespread terrorism across the globe, with increasing frequency. Yet the stock markets apparently are not impacted that greatly after each incident. This is, perhaps, a warning sign for mankind - that we are gradually becoming accustomed to destruction. The Gospel Books and the Book of Revelation have spelt out very clearly that towards the end of the age, there would be massive chaos everywhere, men slaying each other, etc.
Perhaps God has His ways that are veiled to conventional worldly wisdom. =)
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