Sex in the city-state has become quite a newsy topic of late, with the seeming loosening of controls on everything from bar-top dancing to all-night partying. Heck, Singapore is even starting to emerge as a gay entertainment hub, with gay-friendly clubs, bars and saunas, even though homosexual acts are still outlawed.
Still, we’ve got a problem. A recent survey revealed that nearly half of Singapore’s singles would prefer watching television, reading or meeting friends to ??having sex. What’s going to happen when they’re married? How will they have the requisite two kids? This year we’re heading for the lowest number of births in 26 years, a mere 37,000. For a small country like Singapore, whose only resource is its people, not wanting “it” translates directly into a sexo-geopolitical crisis. What to do?
Enter “Dr. Love.” In a country often criticized for its lack of creativity in most matters, let alone affairs of the heart, Dr. Wei Siang Yu has risen to the challenge. Three years ago, this baby-faced sex guru set up Meggpower, a health-promotion company that puts new wireless technology to reproductive use. Say a woman wants to have a baby. She signs up with Meggpower, which maps her monthly cycle. When she’s due to ovulate, the company flashes her an e-mail (call it a hormonalgram) complete with tips on diet and fitness.
As it turns out, this 34-year-old bachelor (“I haven’t met the right woman yet”) is a mine of information. Now, I’m an informed mother of two, but would I have known it takes three months for a cell to transform into a healthy, swimming sperm? This means that if your man has been boozing for weeks, only a radical lifestyle change can give his sperm a new lease on life. Singapore’s problem, says the good doctor, is too much emotional repression, not enough touching and too much concern for what the neighbors might think. “I know people who would like to use vibrators, but don’t dare because it’s too loud.”
He offers solutions to such pressures. One is the iDream love-boat program, where stressed-out couples are ferried by yacht to a nearby luxury resort for a weekend of passion–aphrodisiac delights and sensual pleasures included! (Think massages and body mapping.) He’s even extended the concept to singles, usually 15 of each sex per trip. It’s to “help them mingle,” says Wei, “mingle” clearly being a Singlish euphemism.
November will bring yet another venture–the first Baby Planning Camp, all about how to be BabySmart. For a mere “$316 per person on twin-share basis,” couples can study fertility management, meditation and nutrition with anti-oxidant recipes. Personally, I’m not sure sleeping in separate beds is really the best position for conception.
Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I wonder what all the fuss is about. As I see it, young Singaporeans aren’t not conceiving because of a lack of sex, but simply because they don’t want to. In the pursuit of the famous five C’s–career, car, condominium, credit card and club membership–let’s face it: a small B might not be the best play.
