Loading ...
Say NO to internet regulation in Singapore.
Of the F1 Grand Prix
Posted by singaporedaily on September 28th, 2008
Beautiful dinining ware eh? Unfortunately, what I use to put food on my plate is what unscrupulous businessman with no respect for humanity sell to parents to feed their children with.
In line with being Uniquely Singapore, we are hosting the F1 Grand Prix. That’s right. The state with traffic police wielding speed cameras from behind bushs plays host to the world’s speediest race.
This is how the city transform for the race. We have installed 240 lighting pylons with almost 1,500 lighting projectors, filled roads with more than 15,000 tonnes of Shell bitumen asphalt, constructed 6,000 to 7,000 safety barricades which will line both sides of the 5 kilometre race circuit, along with a few days of scheduled road closure and diversions.
I have been wondering about the return of investment. It has taken $105 million to prep the city for the night race. The government is footing 60 percent of the bill to stage the race. They are hoping that the event will boost its tourism coffers by $71 million a year. The Singapore Tourism Promotion Board had allocated the week before, during and after the F1 as ‘Singapore GP Season’, with a series of F1-themed activities and events such as the Singapore Beer Festival.
A study in 2005 showed that the Australian GP created the equivalent of 3,650 full year employment positions and generated 194,994 additional visitor nights. This perhaps, explains why hotel magnate Ong Beng Seng is covering 40 percent of the $105m. Additionally, the government will be charging a tax on hotel room revenues for seven days around the race. This is expected to raise $10.6 million a year.
The success of hosting this inaugural event may indicate that more such races could be held in Singapore or even Asia. In place of building a race circuit for e.g. the Sepang International Circuit in Selangor, Malaysia, Singapore does not have to maintain the circuit. Also Singapore does not have to constantly draw up events and promotions.
What the citizens would have to put up with is the inconvenience of road closure, coupled with the disruption of MRT services, like what happened on Friday (I dont blame SMRT for the weather, I am terribly unhappy about the disruption and the fare hike which would be in place on Wednesday).
If the race tonight starts and ends on a high, Singapore has successfully marketed itself again.
While I applaud the government’s efforts to market Singapore as a vibrant and open city, I can’t help but to wonder to what extend would the government deign to transform/compromise itself to host more of such international events.
Final Preparations to the Singapore F1 Grand Prix
- Club Snap: Preparation for F1 (Final week)
Sources
- Pitpass.com: And the real winner in F1 is… the government
- CNN: Singapore banking on F1’s night-time appeal
Thanks for reading,
the B.
P.S. Aya Sugimoto, a Japanese actress and erotic novelist has posed nude for a PETA anti-fur campaign. While it is a good initiative, some people are put off because if you were to Google a little further, it turns out that Sugimoto is a gravure model. See for yourselves. It’s the weekend. The link is rated [NSFM] Not Safe for Missus.
September 28th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I thought people wanted to see gravure models nude.
Anyway if the government weren’t benefiting from F1 we’d bash them for wasting taxpayers’ money, no?
September 28th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
And those aren’t nude photos! They’re strategically posed.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:00 am
It is about marketing Singapore. Many people thought Singapore was part of China you know ….
September 29th, 2008 at 11:42 am
@Agagooga
http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/09/japanese_erotic.php
lol… PETA says that’s nude too.
i guess those people who have bashed the effort are those who feel that the innocent girl-next-door-going-naked would have more impact on an anti-fur campaign in place of someone who mostly dresses skimpy
and i agree. we would bash the government if we weren’t benefiting from it. the question is, how much would pains would SG go to to host more of such events
September 29th, 2008 at 11:43 am
@dunbestupid
there are places in SG which makes me feel like i’m in china too! ^_^