CMIO

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I think one of the most important things Singapore will need to do in the coming years and decades is wean itself off the CMIO (Chinese-Malay-Indian-Other) framework. The CMIO framework may perhaps have been necessary in the post-war nation-building years (this is disputable), but it is increasingly irrelevant as we head towards SG100. We live […]

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2050

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I don’t believe that the CMIO framework will remain relevant. Singapore’s long term future has to involve welcoming the best and brightest from the region, and the world. There has to be something more compelling than “Singapore is safe and clean and you can make a lot of money” in order for Singapore to not […]

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conversation

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Saw this ad a while back and was thinking about how there was a Singapore Conversation years ago. What was that about? What did that end up leading to?

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thinking


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Some thoughts: 1. Singapore has to remain competitive to survive 2. One of the ways we competed in the past was by having a more compliant, safe, obedient, reliable workforce 3. That isn’t enough anymore because good, cheap labor is flooding the international marketplace 4. To compete in the future we have to be smarter […]

July 9, 2016

tropes


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(This is a work in progress) Also see: https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/3phket/i_got_really_annoyed_seeing_the_same_stories_in/  Articles about Singapore Unsorted: Would Singaporeans just learn how to behave [2011] In defense of smokers [2011] Maid carry backpack big deal [2011] Singapore needs to encourage bad behavior [2012] Old shoes and duckweed [2016] Singapore Is So Exotic, Prosperous, Sterile, Creepy… Sandy Sandfort – The Intelligent Island [1993] […]

February 11, 2016

Reddit


social media

What sucks about Singapore (493 comments) https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3x8l6s/every_country_in_southeast_asia_has_a_very/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/302m1k/why_is_lee_kuan_yew_considered_a_benevolent/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2ex690/before_ww2_singapore_was_considered_a_nearly/ https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2h11qz/to_the_people_coming_to_singapore_for_world/    

February 11, 2016

SG75: In pursuit of electoral reform and agile governance


Chenghu

My biggest takeaway from watching all the rallies and reading up about all the political parties… is that our representative democracy, as it currently stands, is incredibly outdated. It simply doesn’t make sense that in 2015 you should have to depend on specific individuals (or worse, GROUPS of individuals) to represent you and ALL your […]

September 5, 2015

Analyzing the arguments of a teenage Singaporean elitist


sg mentality

‘Elitism’ can be good for society It’s always genuinely exciting to me whenever a teenager thinks that he has something important to say about society. I was like that myself, and I’m always hoping to hear something really good. I believe that there is a sincere civic-mindedness about young people that us grumpy old(er) farts […]

August 12, 2015

notes from “The History Of Singapore” 2006 documentary


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzGzBm9FME8 1: Raffles Little Child 200 years ago, jungle (1800?) 200 years later- economic giant? no natural resources land is infertile. (Location is a resource!) “Mangrove to metropolis.” The LKY oversimplification: That LKY singlehandedly built Singapore. “Unless you know where you came from, what your ancestors have been though, you have no reference point. What […]

January 10, 2014