I just had a somewhat filling supper of Mcdonalds, consisting of salt, sugar and saturated fat. I'm pretty sure there was a substantial amount of MSG too when I ate the Shaker Fries. I licked my fingers just to be sure.
You would think there are better supper options at the center of one of the most developed heartland places in Singapore. The fact of the matter is that there is none. There's a small kopitiam that claims to be 24 Hours but most of the stalls are closed most of the time after 10 or 11pm. Apart from that, Mcdonalds and 7-11s are the only options one has available if one is in dire need of a filling supper away from home-cooked food.
I long for the day where cities operate round the clock. To achieve that, we need a critical mass of businesses and industries to operate round the clock. Many of them can't. Some industries can't work by night because of noise issues. Some businesses require correspondence with other businesses in Asia. For the rest though, there shouldn't be an issue; higher electric bills can be subsidised by the government. But why would the government want to do that? For a simple reason: to spread the density of human beings across time. Anyone who's been caught in morning and evening rushes would know it's a pain to travel to and from work. The simplest and most effective solution, as I see it, is to simply have two shifts of work. And, of course, when there's a critical mass of workers going to work at night and through the morning, the rest will fall into place: F & B outlets, retail shops, consultancy firms, barber shops, even libraries.
The thing is, there's already a number of people who have a demand for late-night services. When I left Macdonalds it was past midnight and the workers were preparing to go home. There'd be youths who would want to meet up somewhere to smoke, drink, play cards, vandalize public property, and adults who would want to watch live sports and forget there's work the next day. If these people don't have their own means of transportation, they're going to be taking taxis, which is a relatively inefficient way of travelling. It's far better to have MRT trains leaving at half-hour intervals, something which would be implemented when more and more firms decide to work in two shifts. Furthermore, a lot of places are already lit up every night. The corridor outside is lit up through the night. The public car park downstairs is lit up through the night. Nearby roads which are virtually empty of traffic are lit up through the night. In other words, we aren't spending that much more resources in operating around the clock.
I would like to think this is only a matter of time. As population grows the absolute number of night owls who demand late-night services will rise, and so will the density of people on trains, buses and public places, creating an increasingly unbearable environment to be in during the day time. As other cities shift toward a 24-hour regime local businesses which work in contact with businesses overseas will find themselves in need of, or with a greater incentive to, extend their operating hours. As energy technologies become more advanced the cost of lighting up places (a cost that, we remind ourselves, we are already paying for in large part even now) through the night will be reduced.
The most important consequence that will come out of all this is that night owls like myself will have more food and recreation options late in the night. I'd like to have more close-by options for my supper. Fried beehoon, nasi lemak, prawn noodle soup, laksa, roti prata. Anything but Macdonalds.
