East vs. West

Few weeks ago, I had an interesting debate with friend S and friend P. It is all about East vs West but not the oriental or Western stuff which you are probably thinking about. It is much closer to home. In fact, it is about our home.

Friend S states that those who live in the eastern part of Singapore are generally smarter than the west-siders. Friend P and I, who both stay in the west, immediately oppose to what we deem as a baseless statement. By the way, friend S lives in the east, the north=east to be exact.

S decides to support his claim by telling us about his encounters with people who stay in the east. He claims that the average east-sider has more knowledge in every field when compared to a west-sider. Through his experience with west-siders, he believes that they are usually more traditional, hardworking and lacking in general knowledge.

On the other hand, east-siders, according to him, are more creative, are more updated on the latest trends and technologies and a bit more sociable. There is this "spontaneity" in those who stay in the east which makes them look more glamorous than the humble west fellows.

Of course, all these sounded ludicrous and absurd to friend P and I. Both of us agree that S was just stereotyping people. It was S's turn to oppose and he reckons that he can know which part of the country a person lives in after interacting with him/her for a while.

He gave us a few examples to justify himself. "G lives in Jurong West and when I first spoke to him, I immediately knew that he was from the west". "L definitely stays in the East as he is fashionable and knows quite a lot of stuff."

I was unfazed, so I decided to test S. "Where does D stay?" I asked. To which he replied "ah, of course west!". "Wrong! His house's in Tampines." I said, trying to control my laughter while putting on a poker face. We went on for quite a while and S was nowhere near being accurate despite a probability of 0.5.

As S continues to insist that there is nothing wrong with his belief, P decides to make it "the more the merrier". We asked friend I who lives in Tampines and he actually agreed with S. S must have felt so good when he first heard it. We questioned Z, from West Coast, and he disagreed with S without thinking.

Throughout our so-called survey, we actually discovered that we do have friends who are still not familiar with places in Singapore. Friend Z, who hails from Queenstown, was puzzled when we asked him about Hougang. He was unsure which part of Singapore was Hougang in. I dare say at least 99.9% Singaporeans know which part, East or West, of the island is Hougang in.

In the end, we came to an unconvincing conclusion. Friend S was just stereotyping as the amount of people he came across in life is not adequate for him to make such a claim. However, it seems that a number of east-siders are actually on his side. Non east-siders, including those up the north in Woodlands, all think that it is just a coincidence.

Friend P and I think that east-siders are just a little arrogant, but not smarter than the rest of Singapore.

What do you think?