...és még annyit, hogy...

 In the basement of our Singaporean house, there is a row of small shops and businesses. This is a common feature of HDB (Housing and Development Board) flats, which are public housing estates built by the government. The basement is designed to accommodate various small businesses and community spaces. The logic behind this was also followed in the Hungarian public housing construction boom of the 1960s. Recognizing the small size of the apartments, the original concept was to provide various functions in communal spaces. Laundry could be done in a shared laundry room, bicycles could be kept in a common bicycle storage, and kindergartens and nurseries were located between the buildings. After a while, even the basement hair salon could function as a cooperative (quasi-private enterprise) in the socialist Hungary. This concept is also present in Singapore, but based on capitalism, so the foundation of the services found in residential areas is small businesses. These small business...

 It seems like I'm creating a recurring column about my hospital stories from Singapore, but this time I didn't visit the institution as a patient. Well, technically I did, but not as a patient in need of medical attention, but rather as a feedback-giving patient. Since I had interacted with the local Alexandra hospital as both a patient and a family member within three months, I was included in a statistical sample and invited to participate in a focus group discussion on a Saturday morning. I have organized countless focus group discussions myself, and I know how difficult it can be to gather interviewees. So, I immediately said yes, and besides, I had something to say, since my daughter and I are practically regulars there. An agency handled the organization, and they clearly didn't leave anything to chance. They called me about a week before the event, and then messaged me on WhatsApp every few days (everyone uses WhatsApp here, even the government and officials communi...