In 1972, I travelled to the West for the first time on a sponsored student visit to Switzerland. As I marvelled at the sights in Zurich, my eyes searched for the sight of a slum. Incredulous at finding none, I asked my host to confirm what was unimaginable to me then.
Having grown accustomed to slums in Singapore and the region, I could not conceive back then that Singapore would be in the same situation as Switzerland decades later - a country without slums.
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