"Boy is he strict!"
Posted on 12/06/2025 8:03:26 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Having completed my first full day in Singapore, I continue to be impressed, as I believe all visitors are, by what a shiny, clean, well-organized place it is. One could say that this is because it’s a wealthy country. I would go in the other direction: It’s wealthy because it’s chosen to be a clean, bright, shiny place.
Yesterday, we went to the Marina Bay complex, a major tourist attraction that has two massive indoor gardens and one of the biggest malls I’ve ever seen. To get there and back, we took the underground trains that are part of the Singapore Mass Rail Transit (SMRT) system.
Before this trip, the last two urban underground rail systems I used were in New York and San Francisco. Both had similarities: They were filthy, they stank, and the corridors were lined with homeless people, who were also filthy, and many of whom were actively engaged in extreme abuse, whether injecting themselves or in a completely dazed, disoriented state. The whole experience felt like the gates of Hell. Since my last visit to New York, pushing people onto the tracks or otherwise attacking them has become a “thing.”
In Singapore, it’s different. The subway is immaculate. It even smells nice. There are no homeless drug addicts living underground like the damned. The computer systems for buying tickets and then entering and leaving the underground work seamlessly. The trains themselves are also immaculate, no doubt in large part because it’s illegal to eat or drink anywhere on or in the SMRT system. We were on the train at night, and the passengers were clean, quiet, sane, and sober.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Singapore#
Among other things, the ownership of firearms and legit free speech are as hard to find in Singapore as litter.
Pass.
How often have you visited?
Hey maybe if we flogged people for in fractions like littering, and more Medieval punishment for worse infractions, things would be better in America too. And I’m not saying it like it’s a bad thing.
Same in Taiwan for the trains and overall cities. CLEAN. SAFE and the trains are on time to the minute. I leave the wife with her family and tour Taiwan on rail. I do not speak Mandarin. Some people speak english and all are helpful in finding my stop. Small town friendly atmosphere in a crowded country.
That isn't true at all. No asian country ranks high on the happiest country scale. Singapore might rank high in se asia, but no place in asia will win on being happy. The long work hours, high population density, high costs of living in many forms.
Singapore always is a inviting place to be a tourist, but if you've lived there like I have you have seen the limitations on a country like that.
Singapore: Where chewing gum is ILLEGAL. No thanks, not a place I care to visit...
Privatize AMTRAK.
Problem solved.
1. The remarks about the NYC subway system grossly conflate some anecdotal experiences and well known incidents to a consistent and overall condition, which is not true. I ftake NYC bus and subways often enough and only very rarely encounter the dirty, homeless or crime conditions the author mentions.
2. It is easier to build a “modern system” from scratch today (as with Singapore) than to modernize a system that was built in 1904 (like the NYC subway system). There is a modern monorail in the NYC system - it runs from a station in Queens that connects to the subways and the Long Island Railroad, and from there goes to and from JFK airport. Newark Airport also has a monorail connecting all the terminals and rental car facility, and connects to train lines outside the airport.
3. The Singapire transit system is not a free market system. It is heavily subsidized to the tune of over $2 billion a year,
4, Singapore is like California - a one party state controlled by one family.
London too ... we were there two years ago. Graffiti, trash, and Muslims. There was a distinct sense of unease in the air.
RE: The Singapore transit system is not a free market syatem
Neither is New York: Classic example of a heavily subsidized system, with fares covering less than half of operating costs.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) receives over $7.2 billion annually in government subsidies and dedicated taxes to support its operating budget. This covers a large share of its costs, since fares and tolls bring in only about $6.9 billion.
Never.
People who smoke dope say it’s great.
I don’t need to shoot drugs to know they’re bad.
Same deal with SG.
You might say they are cane and able.
Since the Bill of Rights applied to the federal government, whipping and flogging were legal punishments at the state level until the Supreme Court did away with them 50 or 60 years ago. It was mostly applied as a punishment in prisons before that, rather than a sentence of its own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyGLaPyvog8&t=100s
“The last whipping occurred in 1952. Delaware was the last state to abolish the whipping post when it was removed from the Delaware Code in 1972.
Crimes punishable with whipping included breaking and entering, larceny, arson, and wife beating. The number of lashes ranged between 10 to 60 and depended on the era.”
Most counties and towns didn't have enough money to incarcerate people in jail.
The MTA system covers over 1,400 miles of routes. That makes it’s subsidies about $5 million per mile.
Whereas as the Singapore transit system runs only about 150 miles. That makes it’s subsidies running about $13 million per mile.
That makes the old not so fabulous MTA system - as bad as it is - almost three times more financially efficient than Singapore’s.
It looks like you must want more massive government subsidies for U.S. transit systems, just to “keep up with the Joneses”.
,,, last time I was in London I stayed at Russell Square - what a dump. The trip before that, Bayswater. I’ve got no desire to go back. My wife and I used to go to Sydney for the weekend [ex Wellington] if public holidays fell on a Monday. Lots of asians getting on with business and that was all good but some arabic sideways glances made me think if they had a knife it would connect with my back. Not all, but two or three times over three visits was more than enough.
Democrats ruin everything. I grew up in San Francisco in the 1950's. Clean, decent, wonderful place. People wore suits with ties and hats, women with lovely dresses and heels. It was a Republican run city until the mid-1960's, when Democrats flooded in from the east coast and flipped the mayor's office to Democrat, breaking a long tradition of Republican mayors from the early 20th century. City began rotting because of Democrats. Downtown turned from nicely dressed, to people dressing like bums. And bums took over, ruining downtown shopping. Just watch movies of SF made in the 1950's to see the difference.
RE: It looks like you must want more massive government subsidies for U.S. transit systems, just to “keep up with the Joneses”.
How do you conclude this from the observation I made?
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