That thing about the Soviet Union and bathplugs is a bit of a red herring. It’s not that the Russians were/are incapable of producing them, but that the eastern Slavs have an antipathy to sitting in stagnant water. If you want to get clean, you either shower or you go to the banya. You don’t sit in a bath with your scummy excretions floating on top of the water.
in a high end hotel where foreign visitors go to though, it’s not great. He also mentions how nothing was ever cleaned and the staff just sat there doing nothing, which obviously annoys him
You know, there is an aspect of Lee’s thinking that I instinctively understand. Perhaps it is because we both hail from the ‘East’, or the ‘Global South’, or, more broadly, from that vast majority of humanity that does not necessarily subscribe to Western liberalism.
I understand Lee’s admittedly authoritarian, if arguably benevolent, approach to steering the destiny of ‘his people’. I also understand his decidedly unprogressive belief in the importance of genes, heredity and good breeding — notions that most Western liberals would find deeply objectionable, if not downright revolting!
And perhaps this helps explain why Lee’s experiment has proved so difficult to replicate in the West (though I may well be wrong).
Curiously enough, however, certain elements of Lee’s philosophy — his emphasis on good governance, his embrace of globalisation without surrendering to fashionable ideological fads, and his determination to combine ambition with grit, pragmatism and resilience — found an echo in one of the most unexpected places: Dubai!
it's obviously an influence, which is why I planned to visit Dubai on my trip to Singapore. Other people, unfortunately, had plans for that particular airspace!
That’s a shame! I would’ve loved to hear your impressions of Dubai, particularly through the lens of Lee’s Singapore. I hope you’ll have another opportunity to visit — there’s much here that I suspect would interest you, including some rather fascinating differences between the two models!
I’ve heard all sorts of British perspectives on Dubai, ranging from the outright hard-right oddballs —who, curiously enough, still seem to love the place— to liberals who speak about it politely and make sincere, if sometimes painfully awkward, efforts to be sensitive and accommodating!
"Israelis arrived in November 1965, they had to keep their existence a secret to prevent unrest from the Malay minority. ‘To disguise their presence, we called them “Mexicans”’, he recalls: ‘They looked swarthy enough.’"
"Are Israelis in Asia actually Mexican?" the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12,239 pages of heated debate.
It is so odd that intelligent leftists have such a basically wrong view on trade and investment. It isn't that complicated but so many leftists (and Trump) see mutually beneficial trade as exploitation.
I love this series. When I try to imagine what the world might look like in 50+ years, I could see four basic models of government evolving: the Brazil model, the China model, the European Islamo-Gauchiste model, and the Singapore model. Of these options, the Singapore model would be the best you could hope for.
That thing about the Soviet Union and bathplugs is a bit of a red herring. It’s not that the Russians were/are incapable of producing them, but that the eastern Slavs have an antipathy to sitting in stagnant water. If you want to get clean, you either shower or you go to the banya. You don’t sit in a bath with your scummy excretions floating on top of the water.
in a high end hotel where foreign visitors go to though, it’s not great. He also mentions how nothing was ever cleaned and the staff just sat there doing nothing, which obviously annoys him
When I read that, I immediately recalled Michael Palin having the same problem in Around The World In Eighty Days. It's nice to have an explanation!
It's sad that there aren't more Lee Kuan Yew's in the world. Maybe Singapore should start a school to train them.
You know, there is an aspect of Lee’s thinking that I instinctively understand. Perhaps it is because we both hail from the ‘East’, or the ‘Global South’, or, more broadly, from that vast majority of humanity that does not necessarily subscribe to Western liberalism.
I understand Lee’s admittedly authoritarian, if arguably benevolent, approach to steering the destiny of ‘his people’. I also understand his decidedly unprogressive belief in the importance of genes, heredity and good breeding — notions that most Western liberals would find deeply objectionable, if not downright revolting!
And perhaps this helps explain why Lee’s experiment has proved so difficult to replicate in the West (though I may well be wrong).
Curiously enough, however, certain elements of Lee’s philosophy — his emphasis on good governance, his embrace of globalisation without surrendering to fashionable ideological fads, and his determination to combine ambition with grit, pragmatism and resilience — found an echo in one of the most unexpected places: Dubai!
it's obviously an influence, which is why I planned to visit Dubai on my trip to Singapore. Other people, unfortunately, had plans for that particular airspace!
That’s a shame! I would’ve loved to hear your impressions of Dubai, particularly through the lens of Lee’s Singapore. I hope you’ll have another opportunity to visit — there’s much here that I suspect would interest you, including some rather fascinating differences between the two models!
I’ve heard all sorts of British perspectives on Dubai, ranging from the outright hard-right oddballs —who, curiously enough, still seem to love the place— to liberals who speak about it politely and make sincere, if sometimes painfully awkward, efforts to be sensitive and accommodating!
"Israelis arrived in November 1965, they had to keep their existence a secret to prevent unrest from the Malay minority. ‘To disguise their presence, we called them “Mexicans”’, he recalls: ‘They looked swarthy enough.’"
"Are Israelis in Asia actually Mexican?" the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12,239 pages of heated debate.
It is so odd that intelligent leftists have such a basically wrong view on trade and investment. It isn't that complicated but so many leftists (and Trump) see mutually beneficial trade as exploitation.
zero-sum thinking is our default human setting.
I suppose that Singapore was helped by the fact that free trade was its foundational belief.
But shouldn't left wing academic economists be better than that?
It reminds me of the people who think interest rates are bad or insurance should be returned if you don't claim.
I love this series. When I try to imagine what the world might look like in 50+ years, I could see four basic models of government evolving: the Brazil model, the China model, the European Islamo-Gauchiste model, and the Singapore model. Of these options, the Singapore model would be the best you could hope for.
thank you!