I live in Canada and am an U.S. expat. I think one of the most irritating and irresponsible blind spots of Americans and Canadians is the Singapore story and LKY. It is really essential to read both of his books - but esp ‘From 3rd world to first.’
Americans & Cdns are pathetically ignorant of the genius of LKY and the astonishing development of Singapore against all odds.
Let me tell you this: Singapore was about to build a new airport and LKY wanted it to be the most beautiful in the world. The architects said that they were suggesting this sort of flooring (often called terrazo), but it had a problem in that chewing gum stuck hard to it and unless removed quickly, it let a mark. The S’poreans said they already had a problem with the doors of the new subway being jammed from chewing gum left in them - which held up the entire line.
They decided that gum was a problem everywhere, unnecessary to life and they would just ban it. That suddenly became the only thing the shallow media and public knew about LKY and his country. Decades later, the U.S. was about to conclude a free trade policy with S’pore. But under Geo. Bush, Wrigley chewing gum strongly objected, and alas, the treaty was stalled for years on that alone. How many millions of trade do you suppose Wrigley could do with a tiny island (more like 100s of thousands) ? But the U.S. - is ever the bully - you WILL do it our way or the highway - no matter whether which party is in power.
Finally, in its ever present wisdom, S’pore agreed to allow gum in, if the chewer had a prescription from a Dr. This was because for some time they wanted to allow in gum to help people quit smoking. It worked. But it shows the balls of this David against the bully Goliath. You need to read the books to understand the propaganda you have so long been subject to be the stupid media and reprehensible governments.
I don’t think it’s just that “Oh, ha-ha, they ban chewing gum! Those wacky Singaporeans!” There is also by all accounts a pretty pervasive system of censorship and government control of the media.
Of course, there are many reports that people in Singapore are very happy. Heck, that may very well be the truth. Still, the problem with strict limits on freedom of speech is, how can we really know if they’re actually happy or not?
At any rate, many Americans (and Canadians, too, I suppose, and other nationalities) consider freedom of speech to be very important and not something we would want to do without.
Every time I step in a glob of the damn stuff and get it in my shoes, I find myself wishing American gum chewers who discard anywhere other than into a trash receptable (and wrapped, at that) would get arrested and caned in public.
I confess to being as ignorant of Lee Kuan Yew and the political-social situation in Singapore as the average American.
Well, first of all, there are no strict limits on freedom of speech. The limits are relatively mild compared to many other countries, as can be seen here:
They do apparently block a few dozen sites that advocate adultery. Compare that to all the countries blocking sites which criticize their own government, or block the entire .il domain. Compared to those, Singapore is just not strict.
Also, as I far as I can tell, there is freedom to read, and you can do so for free due to excellent public libraries:
As for knowing if they are happy, since there is freedom of polling, we can know it, to the extent it really is knowable. And Gallup says they are sad:
I do raise my eyebrows when I see on the last link that Guatamala, with a homicide rate 200 times that of Singapore, and its own free speech issues, polls much higher in happiness.
Yea, I do think Singapore should loosen up a bit. But after reading this, well, I kindda wished Philadelphia was more like Singapore:
Is everything good there? No. They have a high incarceration rate, something I consider one of the best measures of lack of freedom. But, by the incarceration rate measure, my United States is three times less free.