A Globalized Life

What is it - to lead an international life?
Getting the wake-up call from a Finnish cell phone, while sleeping in a poor bed with a pizza-thin mattress (probably it is not even "Made in China"..) in the heartlands in Singapore (no clue why it is called like this, since it is far remote from Downtown Singapore, but near the border bridge to Malaysia...).
Taking a shower with an old "Elmark"-device (made in the UK), using German (Niveau, right?) shower gel (don't ask me where it was produced).
For breakfast, taking malaysian made margarine and jelly from Australia (but with the description in Arabic, since it was produced for this export market - and finally sold in the Carrefour, which is a French chain, in Singapore) on toast bread from xyz. Well, as European-rooted guy you can't call this bread since they pre-slice the loaf and then pack it in a plastic (!) bag. Except for luxury niche bakeries, you never find a "normal", fresh baked bread loaf on the shelves, but only this gummy stuff (at least they have besides white bread also mixed wheat ones, which are supposed to be more healthy – for me one of the few sources I could brag to live healthy from…).

Ah ja, concerning "health": I just read this morning in the "Today" newspaper (a free daily that is sometimes distributed in our apartment building that the obesity problem in the USA is still increasing. The record hit Mississippi with more than 30% of its population being obese, according to the cited study! (Coincidentally, I just opened a letter from a good friend in the USA).
Incredible, if you think about the economic costs this entails and the future prospects of humankind. The coming generation or our children of now about 5-10 years will be the first who face lower life expectancy due to poor nutrition and a lack of physical exercise. Somehow, it is insane – humans have found ways to fly, hunt and exterminate animals, got to the moon and finally, we voluntarily kill ourselves through being too fat and live unhealthy.
[Admittedly, the author of these lines should keep quiet since he lives unhealthy and imbalanced as well; his "household class" teacher told him once, if he continues to refuse eating vegetables/salad etc he would die in his 30's…]

Compare this to the Asian people in here. Wherever you look, the vast majority of the people are skinny, well trained, pure skin, no acne, look very good and seem to be always happy (at least the come up with a smile pretty fast … and sometimes this does not mean to be happy).
If we Westerners want to remain competitive, innovative and aim for progress, then we need to alter our habits. There is a lot gossip on the streets here, where people find that they will soon be able to outcompete old/aging Europe and fat America!! The West is no longer the one who is being looked up to, but rather who is smiled at…

Actually, I should continue with my main theme, the globalized life…
Yeah, while I type in these words, I take notes concurrently on my Swiss-made scrap-paper book, figuring out what I shall write for a column for a Swiss local newspaper (I will frequently report about my experiences here in Singapore).

Hey – I gotta go, is already 8.30am (usually I would write such things at 2 or 3am, but since my roommate wants to sleep then he forbade me to stay at the computer after 2am, since the clicking/typing annoys him. Interestingly, he sleeps usually till 11am and is not annoyed by my typing in the morning when I get up at 6am…).

btw: I finally got my "Student Pass" yesterday - the official card allowing me to stay here for the semester, issued by the ICA (immigration bureaucrats). I asked for it on Aug 6, they said it'll be ready at Aug 11; when I came on Aug 11, they didn't have it and later on forgot to tell me when they were ready. To my emails I got a very late reply...
So, not everywhere in Singapore this PS21 (public service reform to focus public employees on more costumer oriented values) was successful....:-(((
CU soon