Posted on 03/22/2015 4:15:36 PM PDT by djsunzi
Lee Kuan Yew, who dominated Singapore politics for more than half a century and transformed the former British outpost into a global trade and finance powerhouse, setting a template for emerging markets around the world, died Monday. He was 91 years old.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
RIP. He was perhaps the closest thing to a Confucian benevolent emperor; most tyrants are just tyrants, which is why in general power should never be centralized in one person.
So solly.
RIP
I had no idea he was still alive.
Stamford Raffles was Singapore’s founding father, BTW.
Why do I think Singapore has been around more than 91 years?
As a city it has been - as a self governing state, it’s only been in existence since 1959 and it became independent in 1963.
I always thought South Korea, Park Chung Hee was a benevolent dictator. Lee freed Singapore from Muslim domination.
He wrote a piece in Forbes once in a while. He clearly understood and wrote about what was happening on the Pacific rim.
He was so far above Obama on so many levels, it was painful to read his work and then think on the naivete of Obama
He was a friend of America and the West, who nonetheless saw the absolute importance of common, shared values and morality as the basis for a prosperous and stable society
Rest In Peace, Harry
Every one of 8 Singaporeans is a MILLIONAIRE.
Western emphasis on property rights, Chinese entrepreneurialism, Protestant work ethic.
And its an orderly, well-behaved society.
Confucian values are strong in Singapore.
The founder of Facebook moved there. How much is homegrown millionaires and how much is lured millionaires?
Well... to a point. It has a wonderful public face. It also has a ghastly undercurrent of inter-cultural hatred.
RIP.
Beat me to it!
Leak On You. (Sorry)
I think hatred is too strong a word, rather people don’t really mix outside their ethnic groups.
Singapore shows how if everyone has a decent home and a job and their kids get to school and there is at least a modicum of equality before the law then most people can get on with their lives without caring what religion their neighbours are.
However I do agree that Singapore is far from the happy racial melting pot where everyone loves everyone else, the government prefers to portray. I am struck when I go there how everyone sticks to their own; in bars, cafes, social groups one sees all white, or all Chinese or all Malay, very rarely do you see multi-ethnic groups. This is in contrast to Jakarta, Indonesia, where despite all the differences there is genuine getting along. You will see mixed groups hanging out together in Jakarta in a way that you simply do not see in Singapore.
This is especially so of the whites who almost always have an ethnically diverse partner and mixed-race children. In Singapore, perhaps because there are more white people, especially women, you don’t see so many mixed-race couples.
If anyone is in Singapore this week Mr Lee’s body will lie in state at Parliament House from Wednesday, March 25, to Saturday, March 28, for the public to pay their last respects. They can do so from 10 am to 8 pm daily during that time.
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