Disneyland with the death penalty

The name " Disneyland with the death penalty " refers to the subject of the article - the city-state in Southeast Asia, where the rigor with which cleanliness is maintained is described in horror by Gibson ^[4] . The article begins with a Disneyland metaphor, then Gibson quotes an observation by Laurie Anderson that virtual reality " will never look real until people learn to add a little dirt to it ." This statement related to impeccable cleanliness at Changi Airport . In addition to describing the airport, the author notes that the natural environment is also too cultivated, and cites numerous golf courses as an example. Singaporean society makes a “ruthless Puritan impression”, the population is controlled by the government , which is more like a megacorporation . Conformism and fear of violating norms of behavior are firmly rooted in society, a sense of humor and ability to creativity are not developed ^[2] .

It is hard for Gibson to find the connection between modern and Victorian Singapore, from which little is left. Trying to find hidden Singaporean social mechanisms, the author in vain sought the presence of urban spirit. During the morning walks caused by forced wakefulness due to the difference in time zones, he found out that the physical past of the city-state almost completely disappeared ^{[2] [4]} . Gibson gives a brief overview of Singapore's history , from the founding of the city in 1819 by Stamford Ruffles , then to the Japanese occupation and the establishment of the republic in 1965.

He concludes that modern Singapore is an effective one-party state and capitalist technocracy , primarily and mainly as a result of the activities of its prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew ^[2] , who held this position for thirty years. In between, he cites the headlines of the South China Morning Post , which described in detail the trial of an economist, official, and editor of a newspaper for revealing state secrets about Singapore's economic growth. ^[2]

Gibson regrets the lack of a genuine urban spirit ^[4] , what he describes as “creativity” ^[2] . He gives a psychogeographic overview of the city-state architecture, and also notes an endless series of young, attractive and uniformly dressed middle-class representatives in the halls of Singapore's shopping centers and compares the city-state with a large conference center somewhere in Atlanta . He uncompromisingly considers the selection of music and books in stores “ none ”, reflecting on whether this is partly the fault of the Department of Unwanted Propaganda , one of several government organizations responsible for censorship . Due to the almost complete absence of bohemianism and counterculture, Gibson is unable to find traces of dissent , underground or slum ^{[2] [4]} . Instead of brothels, there are “health centers” authorized by the government (in fact, massage parlors), and dates are necessarily organized by government marriage agencies. He notes: “ There is very little that is not the result of a deliberate and, no doubt, carefully thought out social policy ” ^[2] .

The author is obsessed with the lack of creativity of the city-state as an obsession with shopping as a form of leisure, a monotonous range of products and prices, as well as another passion - a tendency to eat well (although, according to the author, there is enough variety of food, he even notes: “There will be something to tell at home”) ^[2] . Then he again returns to the topic of Singapore's moderate pallor, describes the frightening purity of the environment and the self-control of the population, which is strictly within the law. Shedding light on Singapore’s technological advances and its desire to build an information economy , Gibson at the same time expresses doubts that Singaporeans will have the flexibility given their self-controlled and conservative nature to meet the requirements of the next century of mass digital culture - “in the wild cyberspace without censorship” ^[2] . “Perhaps,” he argues, “the fate of Singapore is to become nothing more than a neat, Swiss-like enclave in which order and wealth reign in a sea of ​​bizarre pretentiousness of the future” ^[2] .

Toward the end of the article, Gibson briefly talks about two of the death penalty cases by the Singaporean judicial system. He quotes The Straits Times in the case of Mat Repin Mamat, a Malay convicted to death for attempting to smuggle a kilogram of hemp to a city state, and continues the article by describing the case of Joachan van Dam, a Dutch engineer who was facing the same fate because He found a significant amount of heroin . He expresses doubts about the fairness of capital punishment and describes Singaporeans as true carriers of zero tolerance . After the pronouncement of the verdict in the case of Van Dam, Gibson decides to leave the country. “In record time,” he checked out of the hotel and caught a taxi to the airport. On the way there, he drew attention to the complete absence of police, but there were more than enough police officers at Changi Airport. Here, Gibson photographed a discarded crumpled piece of paper, which caused their anger. Arriving in Hong Kong, he out of the corner of his eye manages to see the Kowloon slums planned for demolition at the end of the landing strip at the chaotic Kaitak Airport and reflects on the contrast with the orderly and disinfected city left behind. The article ends with the words: “ I loosened my tie, leaving the airspace of Singapore ” ^[2] .

In response to the publication of the article, the Singapore government banned the publication of " Wired " in the country. The phrase “ Disneyland with the death penalty ” has become well-known and widely used to refer to Singaporeans ^{[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]} , especially among opponents of the Singapore authoritarian method of governance ^[11] . Having an authoritarian and tough city-state is difficult to get rid of this label ^{[12] [13]} . Creative Review enthusiastically welcomed the “famous killer comment” ^[14] , while The New York Times Assistant Editor Raymond Walter Apple defended Singapore in a 2003 article: “They hardly deserved such painfully careless nicknames ” ^[15] . Looking through an article in 2003, Gibson wrote on his blog ^[16] :

The article in “Wired” may have been able to talk about the now well-known eerie ubiquity of the state in Singapore, but it was not even possible to convey the grayness of this city, this terrible spirit of sales. Endless shopping malls with tons of shops selling the same goods, either garbage from which Casey would have suffered anaphylactic shock , or a dull imitation of local production. You can choose a much prettier outfit by purchasing exclusively at Heathrow .

The article “ Disneyland with the death penalty ” was included in the program “Development of Singapore” on the course “Writing and Critical Thinking” in 2008 at the National University of Singapore ^[17] .

The article made a strong impression on readers. In the newspaper The Boston Globe , she was described as an “acute attack on technocratic management practices in Singapore” ^[18] . The publication was advised by the postmodern political geographer Edward Soya as a “wonderful tour of urban cyberspace” in a city-state ^[19] . Journalist Stephen Poole called it a “horrific report” and assured that the author “despises corporate big business” and is “a champion in deepening local affairs” ^[20] . In a review of Gibson’s novel Zero Story for The Observer , James Proudhon noted Disneyland as one of Gibson’s highest points: “This is a witty, insightful semblance of reporting, which also testifies to journalistic talent, the gift of providence who made him the guru of the digital era ” ^[21] .

The philosopher and author of books on modern technology, Peter Ludlow, considered the article an attack on the city, and considers it ironic that the real Disneyland is in California , a state where “the criminal code includes the death penalty” ^[22] . Urban theorist Martin Delbek noted that, according to Gibson, computerized control is to blame for the indiscriminate nature of the city-state, a statement that Delbek called “a traditional, almost old-fashioned remark against technocracy” ^[4] . In 2004, Paul Roe commented in his article: "We must pay tribute to the author for his ability to capture the spirit of the times in a context such as here, but Gibson's journalistic report is unbearably rude." He also quoted , a British scientist living in Singapore, who claimed that Gibson “was unable to properly formulate his criticism” ^[23] .

In the book S, M, L, XL , Urbanist and architectural theorist Rem Koolhaas drew attention to the sarcastic, ironic tone of the original article and condemned the author’s view as a typical reaction of “dead parents who are killed due to the erratic use of their heritage children ” ^{[4] [24]} . Koolhaas argued that such a reaction as that of Gibson implies that the positive legacy of our time can only be reasonably used by representatives of Western civilization and attempts, like Singaporean ones, to assimilate the “novelties” of the modern world without understanding its history will only give distortions ^[4] .

Singaporean Tan Ven Hong, in turn, wrote a critical response to both Gibson and Koolhaas ^[25] .

• Paternalism
• Technocracy

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