Pre-British rule Singapore was once a small fishing village at the tip end of Malaysia and was part of the Malaysian archiepalego. After the 2nd world war and in the 1950's a young vibrant Cambridge law graduate by the name of Lee Kuan Yew had visions of his little island one day appearing on the map with it's own identity and character and perhaps Singapore would appear on the map despite this miniscule dot on the world map. That vision has brought Singapore a long way from the small fishing village with no natural resources of it's own and even no water supply enough for it's inhabitants. And so Lee Kuan Yew began this hard and almost seemingly impossible project to create Singapore to what it is now and as you can see he made it. He built a strong political party that ignited the progress of Singapre starting from negotiating a life long supply of water for his people from their neighbours - Malaysia (who are rich in natural resources and of course water) at a very low price that has now caused a tough legal battle between the two countries - but that is another story that is rather funny but clever. Another long term vision of Lee Kuan Yew is to house his growing population so he came up with an ingenious idea of building flats for the lower income groups. The first I remember being an area called Toa Payoh. It was so popular and easily affordable more and more were built. The next thing he wanted to encourage a savings plan for Singapore in order their could prepare for their pensions, housing, etc. so the Central Provident Fund was established. This worked by deducting 17% of their salaries at source every month and it was compulsary. To build the economy he encourage attractive inducements for International companies to set up offices and factories in Singapore hence it is now one of the prominent financial centres in the world. Singapore does not have a deficit - in fact they are one of the very few governments in the world that in credit. Bearing in mind Singapore has to import everything into the country so the governement needed an income... Recognising that many ex-British soldiers wanted to return to Singapore to remininse hence the tourism trade boomed and that is where Singapore's main income comes from. When the SARS broke out (from the Chicken flu) it nearly crippled Singapore but being quick to act they revived the economy by cutting hotel prices, offering flight incentives, etc, etc. and they never looked back since. To strengthen their identity and gain respect in the world platform Singapore Airlines was born and again with government influence ensured that it was one of the best (in everthing) in the world. On the home front Singaporeans like eating out alot. Singapore consisting predominantly of Chinese, Malays and Indians this cause their cultures to gel together and things began to evolve like the language (called Singlish - i.e. Singapore English), the foods and drinks, etc. Education was paramount in their family life hence there is no illiteracy in Singapore and universities cropped up everywhere due to their high demands. Many have also been sent abroad to USA, Australia, UK and Europe to study and broaden their horizons on world knowledge and culture. In the 1970s from once being a colony of Great Britain and having a strong influence in their lives the new generation took to the American culture and values e.g. skateboarding, hamburgers, Starbucks, etc, etc. This could also be due to the numerous American air-craft carriers that were always docked in their ports. To encourage the gigantic air-craft carriers to stop in Singapore they had to be able to have the deep waters and space and so they did that and was once the 3rd largest harbour in the world. What a vision! Singapore never sleeps, night clubs, restaurants, food stalls, shopping centres and now a new gigantic casino is being built to keep the money in their thriving city. The way I look at it the government never sleeps either as they are always looking at ways to keep on top of everything. They infrastructure is immaculate and very well run - like clockwork. Crime is very low. Streets and buildings are kept clean and pristine. There is a law that mandatory for home owners to paint their homes/buildings every 5 years or even when the appearance of your building starts to look dirty - whichever comes first. When you are in Singapore try to observe how clean buildings are not just the streets. I can safely say hand on my heart there is also no corruption in Singapore as there are heavy penalties once caught. I can remember when I was a child that everythng was cheap in Singapore but with progress there is always a price to pay and things have got more expensive. Although the population of Singapore has grown to nearly 5million, just over 1 are foreign workers. You will not see the locals doing manual work unless it is skilled and most of them it is because it is their own business. In the last 15 years health care has been privatised and similar to that of the USA but the locals have been encouraged to take out insurance to cover the costs. 3 in 5 homes have domestic help mainly brought in from Indonesia, India & the Philippines. With the introduction of their version of VAT there are ocassions when the Singapore governement give that back to their locals after annoucing how much they have to give back to their public. So at least once every 2 years the Singaporeans get a pay cheque from their government. How rewarding!
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