Moments from My Metropolis - What Price? Civilization

Two recent experiences in my metropolis reminded me of both the gift - and the economic reality - of enjoying the abundant fruits of civilization.

Exhibit No.1. Two weekends ago, we decided to spend the afternoon with our daughters at the main branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL); the imposing Beaux-Art marble palace dedicated to books and learning on 42nd street at Fifth Avenue now being cleaned to be readied for its centenary. The NYPL system is one of the great joys of New York city living. According to its website, its 4 research libraries and 85 branches carries 50.4m publications for the benefit of 2.2m members. And it is totally free.

What that mean for us is that we would visit the Children's Room at the library, which carries a wonderful collection of children's books (in many languages), with a space to the side for children's activities and we would - literally - empty out whole stacks of books from the shelves and borrow them home. On that particular Saturday, we came out with about 30 books which we could keep for weeks - although the girls needed only a few days to run through them. For the past few years, we hardly bought any books because wherever we wanted we would find at the library. We can reserve them online and they would be delivered for collection at a nearby branch.

I imagine that is what a book loving multi-billionaire would feel, to collect and build up an endless collection of books (and CDs and DVDs) at his disposal. For us, we can enjoy the same thing as the billionaire - and its totally free.

Exhibit No.2. The next day we were out for some exercise and fresh-aire in Central Park. The weather promised to be warm(er) and sunny. I had brought along the children's kick-scooters so that they could ride along the lake/reservoir. But what we did not anticipate was that a slight shower of rain broke the moment we got there - so we sought refuge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of my favourite places in the world.

Housed in yet-another giant Beaux-Arts mansion, but one built of sandstone unlike the library which was built of marble, we dove into its 1.3m pieces of enclyclopaedic collection from civilizations around the world. We wondered around the Byzantine arts, to the medieval collection when Hue, our 5-year old daughter, wanted to see the mummies. So I went with her to learn about the mummies while Mewyee went with our 7-year old Ning (who is terrified of mummies) and we agreed to meet at the American Wing. Along the way, Hue and I saw and learnt about arms and armours, art and furnishing from the Middle Age Europe and finally mummies and other sacred art work from Ancient Egypt. Eventually, we had lunch at the museum cafeteria and by then the rain cleared and we resumed our original plan.

A few days later, Mewyee and I decided to visit the Met on an impulse. We ended up spending an hour on a gallery tour about the meanings behind costumes through-out the ages led by an expert curator. Such tours brings the collection to life by bringing out the meaning and significance behind the art. We have been on many such gallery tours and there are perhaps a dozen each and everyday (in multiple langauges and for different age groups) but this one stood out as the best we have ever heard for as long as we could recall.

And all the while, I was thinking how wealthy does one have to be to enjoy what we just did? A multi-billionaire would take years and billions to build and house a world-class collection like the Met - even if that is at all possible this day and age - and even more to engage world class brains and experts to create intellectual enjoyment for a lay-person like me. And for that, we paid $5. The suggested entry is $20 but payment is actually voluntary; once I stood behind a person who paid 10cents.

I was profoundly humbled by thoughs and experiences like these. What is the meaning of wealth and abundance? What is the meaning of a civilized society? And what price the "haves" of society should be willing to bear in exchange for a civilized society?

In many ways, New York is a great case study for that last question. Unlike the major capitals of the world - London, Paris, Washington DC - that host the national intellectual and cultural collections, New York do not enjoy state patronage. The great public institutions and collections in New York are privately endowed for the general public by the wealthy; many from the 19th century but contributions continue to pour in to this day from the great and the good of local society. One of the most attractive social tradition about New York City is that the wealthy tend to keep a low profile. For a city full of real estate moguls, the tradition is never to put one's name in bright lights on the building (one reason why New York is usually scornful of a certain Mr Trump, who is from New Jersey by the way). The only exception to this low profile is when it comes to giving: come charity balls and naming rights to a new concert hall, hospital wing or museum pavillion, one sees the New York high society in ferocious competition to see who is giving how much.

And the city as a whole is richer from all those giving. That is how even a homeless person can (if he wants to) read a different book a day for the whole of his life, or a small child get to learn to draw by sketching a Degas, or a delivery boy can listen to Placido Domingo at a public performance in the park, or new immigrant parents can get books for their children to learn English (and DVDs in their native language for themselves).

And I think about all manners of public services, the police for keeping the peace, the fire brigade for rescues in distress, the public buses that takes people about without need for a car, the utilities that brings us clean water, the public schools for giving everyone an education - with the glaring exception of a decent health system that keeps one healthy without costing personal financial ruin. On public schooling, it was said that despite the Great Depression in the 1930s and 1940s a whole generation got the best education in the world in the New York Public school system, which at the time was staffed by brilliant emigre scientists and intellectuals escaping from totalitarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe.

Everywhere I looked and the more I learn the more I realise public services and amenities are not ill-afforded luxuries, or creeping socialism, or ill-deserved rewards for the poor amd unsuccessful. They are the very foundations of a civilized society; one where the rich, no-so-rich and the poor made a choice that their society shall stand and fall together; and who resolved that a civilization is sustainable only when it is not to be enjoyed in isolation but one to be shared.

As one casts one's eyes to the many societies and metropolis that are developing all around the world - across Southeast Asia China, India, Latin America and the old-Soviet Union - often we see enclaves for the wealthy esconced behind high walls, security guards, manicured lawns, satellite TVs, lavish shops, spas, private hospitals, private schools and darkened car windows. And beyond that are the rest of society; one of indifferent infrastructure, crime, corruption, pollution, poor schools and trash. And I am sure the conclusion must be that the value of civilization is indeed priceless.