weighing in on von's thoughts on the cosmopolitan/heartlander divide.

i disagree that the distinction is purely phenotypic/behavioural (as yen commented: a hawker center meal does not a heartlander make), and not just because of the traditional blurring-of-boundaries argument. the underlying dichotomy (certainly nowadays, perhaps less so in the past) is probably far simpler - the terms have become euphemistic catch-alls for 'rich' and poor'. therefore, being 'cosmopolitan', in the singaporean sense of the word, is not context-dependent: moneyed is moneyed whether one is eating in an hougang hawker center or les amis.

the truth of the matter is that singapore really is too small to have delineations that depend, at least to a certain extent, on possessing a geography that produces immiscible cultures. there is not enough physical space for our population to be hetergeneous - cosmpolitans end up in heartlander territory (and vice versa) by sheer dint of the fact that there is nowhere else to go. diffusion; probabilities. thus, it is impossible for us to produce two behaviourally distinct groups, and (sorry to say), people like von are probably not all that uncommon.

so if it's not what you do, and it's not who you are (i don't think anyone's going to argue that there's a heartlander gene), it must be what you own. and if that is the case, one really cannot be both cosmopolitan and heartlander, charming as the illusion may be. even if one could, not being well off in a nation of bloated prosperity is probably not cool - in fact, i will stick my neck out and say that it sucks - so at worst we're insulting the 'heartlanders' quite terribly by insinuating that we would like to straddle the fences

the moral of the story, perhaps, is that the division is more political than genuinely sociocultural. it's a gentler way of talking about inequality of wealth distribution, and, as von inadvertently pointed out, softens the plight of the poor, and even makes it, in a twisted sort of way, desirable. we're one of the masses! count on me, singapore! etc. me? i just don't believe in labels and pigeonholes. fade to grey.