Living in an overpopulated world.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in an overpopulated world? Well, wonder no longer: just come to Singapore.

Writers are fond of warning us of overpopulation and indicating some future time at which this would have occurred. They then paint the terrors of such a time and such a condition. I find this a little puzzling since it doesn't take much experience of life, in some parts of the world, to know that overcrowding is already here.

Today, I made the mistake of going to Singaporean shopping centres on a Sunday. This innocent enough sounding activity is actually most unpleasant. The crowds and the noise were both unbearable. I seemed to have entered a competition, in which a basic challenge had been made: how many people can you squeeze into a shop at one time, without killing any of them? I could swear that every shop I entered was well on the way to being the winner. It was awful. Everywhere, I felt the press of too many others. Every sight line was blocked by a myriad people, obscuring everything beyond them, ever moving, ever jostling. Then there was the noise: so many people chattering at once, seeking to speak above those who sought to speak above them. It was a cacophony of incomprehensible sounds, for so many of them did not speak English (or nothing that I would recognize as such).

I felt the strongest need to be at home, in peace and quiet.

As I looked around, a thought nudged me every now and again: the Singaporean government wants even more people in Singapore. Already there are 4.8 million, but I understand the target to be 6.5 million. Well, on the hugely unpleasant evidence of what I experienced today I would say that Singapore has long past the point of overpopulation already. Singapore is already, in some ways, a very unpleasant place to live: you just have to go to the wrong place at the wrong time (ie. where everyone else wants to go) and you will really have a terrible time fighting your way through the crowds of people. Were there to be another 1.7 million people, as planned, Singapore would be truly unbearable: everywhere would be unbearably overcrowded ALL the time.

I would say that Singapore should have no more than 1 million people. That is all. The population of Singapore should be drastically reduced if it is to be a livable environment in the decades ahead. If the population is increased, only those who are particularly immune to living in intensely overcrowded conditions will stay here. The rest will leave for anywhere else, that offers more breathing space.

I have learnt something though. I don't intend to go to a main shopping centre, in Singapore, on the weekend again. That is the time to stay away from such places. Life is too short to spend any of it in such unpleasant situations.

I rather hope that the global population does not continue to climb - otherwise more and more places will become as densely populated as Singapore and there will be fewer and fewer refuges for the sensitive among us, from the urgent press of innumerable humanity.

It was a relief to get home.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)