I had just walked out of the luxurious Raffles City Mall in Singapore when I saw a great black plume of smoke sucked into the sun. As it’s my first visit to city-state, I wasn’t sure if fires in busy intersections were a regular occurrence. A car had exploded curb-side; actually, not just any a car: a Ferrari, low slung, previously banana-peel yellow and, now, charcoal grey. The fire had started in the engine, at the back of the car. The boot completely had melted, most of the engine was ash. The tires had completely melted down, so the chassis rested on the scorched tarmac.

One of the things I have realized during my first visit to Singapore is that it is a society on the go. It fared the Global Recession relatively well, and has been liberalizing its economy, and enlivening its notoriously dull society. As one Singaporean university student told me, “The government isn’t controlling things as much as it used to. Just a few years ago, there was only one art school. Now there are three. The government doesn’t direct us to certain jobs any longer; now we can have more possibilities.” I recall a couple years ago the Singaporean’s concern at the dearth of entrepreneurial talent; it had been directing its best and brightest to careers in government and nationalized enterprises.

I like Singapore. As one British expat who’s lived in Singapore 13 years and raised a family here told me, “It’s easy to knock the government. But things work here.” He described to me what a dream it is to come off an international flight at the Singapore airport and be through passport control and customs in less than twenty minutes. Just a few minutes more with little wait at the taxi stand, and he’s home.

It seems a safe city. I’ve seen only one police cruiser. Most of the uniforms I see are of school students who club together after class, chattering, fooling around, teasing each other, sharing after-school snacks. School days, though, are clearly long, with students heading home after 5pm.

Though business brought me to the nation state, I’ve made the time to walk some of its boulevards and side streets. Despite its small size, the diversity of the population is a breath of fresh air after more than a year of not having traveled outside China. Ethnic Malays, Chinese and Indians pretty much socialize within their own groups, but work together at government and service jobs. It’s also nice not to be pushed and shoved – as is the rule, rather than the exception in China – to queue in line without complaint; to hear (and say) “sorry” when crossing too close into someone’s personal space, or even bumping into them; and no loud hocking or spitting on the sidewalks. Though it would be nice to chew a stick of gum now and then, I’ve gotten over it. Singapore makes an extreme effort to put the “civil” into civilization, something Chinese society on the Mainland has a long ways to go in its wen ming campaigns.

But then again, Chinese leaders are more concerned with keeping the momentum of economic growth roaring at Ferrari-like speeds. We know, though, what can sometimes happen to overheated engines – no matter how finely tuned.