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Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

techcrunch.com

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Re: Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

#91

Post by twic »

nbevans wrote: post #42
hkt wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main proponents of doing this are a guy who bought a water cannon to use on protestors in London, a man so Catholic he'd vote down abortion, and a bunch of people who are mostly OK with letting people who are fleeing war drown in the Mediterranean. I do not hold out much hope.

They use water cannon in the rest of Europe, and even tear gas. What's the problem? They should have had a water cannon for the London Riots in 2012 - and that is why they purchased some. Which the current mayor has selfishly used for political points by selling them off for barely 10k. He will be praying they aren't ever needed.

> They should have had a water cannon for the London Riots in 2012

What? The whole deal with the riots [1] is that they were like flashmobs, they'd pop up at random. Unless you have a water cannon on every street corner, they'd spend all their time chasing round after the villains.

> Which the current mayor has selfishly used for political points by selling them off for barely 10k.

That is a truly bizarre - and, let's be honest, entirely partisan - way to lay the blame.

[1] lootings really

Re: Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

#92

Post by baybal2 »

bobcostas55 wrote: post #77
baybal2 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Singapore for 2.5 years. I mostly remembered him for his psychomumbling of later part of his life. Calling him "doing all things right" is a big stretch. The biggest error of him was to cling to power long after his mind went going. Singapore's economic success was pretty much a meme too. The median income is only ~20000 USD a year, less than half of the economic product per capita. There were three epochs…

>The median income is only ~20000 USD a year, less than half of the economic product per capita. This[0] publication puts median household income at $108k SGD or 79.5k USD (and that would actually be higher if adjusted for PPP). The median household income for the US is 59k USD. [0] https://www.singstat.gov.sg/-/media/files/publications/house...

> median household income

Not median per person for the whole population including non-residents in the country.

Re: Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

#93

Post by philliphaydon »

cinquemb wrote: post #67
philliphaydon wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never ever seen signs in the MRT about anything to do with pregnancy... (been here 7 years, catch the MRT to work every day, yellow and green lines)

This was sometime between Feb 27 and early march 2017 passing through some station on coming from somerset station on the red line, coming off one of the trains and on the walking tram, there was a huge billboard for it.

Ah I never get the red line. It’s always so crowded :)

Re: Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

#94

Post by baybal2 »

twic wrote: post #88
baybal2 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The better comparison for the nation should be Luxembourg, and Andorra, not other Asian countries. > Whatever their form of government, small city states are always going to be able to avoid many of the pitfalls of larger countries. There's effectively only one level of government to deal with, and the despot is always going to live down the road from you and need to use the same public services as you, so you don't…

> both countries' economies are one trick ponies What is Singapore's trick? Their economy looks moderately diversified to me - GDP comes 13.3% from finance, 19.2% from manufacturing, 17.6% from wholesale and retail trade, 14.8% from "Business Services", and 35% from other stuff: https://www.tablebuilder.singstat.gov.sg/publicfacing/create...

There is very little genuine manufacturing left in Singapore. Back in nineties, there was big industry for trade agencies which imported random cheap stuff, and resold it to the West after stamping things with "Made in Singapore."

I assume, the big portion of manufacturing other than output of chip fabs, is the remnant from those years. Add it to that double digits of trade and services will also relate to the same activity.

And a big portion of services labelled as other and business services will relate to offshore banking.

And yeah, both countries run humongous sovereign funds, or better to say, both countries are ran by them.

Re: Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

#95

Post by thelasthuman »

gerbilly wrote: post #90

I would never go to Singapore. They'd probably end up whipping me a hundred times for something I did without even being aware of it. [1] IMHO that whole country should serve as a counterexample to all the rest. Humans really are good at making life miserable for each other aren't they? [1] Maybe farting in public, or wearing my shoes on the wrong feet or whatever.

You need a permit for a public assembly for most places in the USA. Granted there are a lot of differences between the two countries, but this could happen here.

Re: Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

#96

Post by brianpgordon »

angelsl wrote: post #60

Why is everyone focusing on the fact that someone spoke via Skype? The fact is that 1. Jolovan Wham did organise a physical gathering of people 2. The gathering/assembly meets the definition as in the Public Order Act[1] 3. The venue, The Agora, meets the definition of a public place as in the Public Order Act [1]: https://sso.agc.gov.sg/Act/POA2009 They could have been watching a recorded video and it would have bee…

I'm not sure that a recorded video would have been the same. The source for the techcrunch article says:

> The Singapore Police Force in an earlier statement, said that Wham had organised an indoor public assembly featuring a foreign speaker, which required a Police permit.

Although given that political films are also banned, maybe a prerecorded video would have been illegal under a different law.

Re: Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

#97

Post by ColanR »

jessaustin wrote: post #78
avar wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Surely a de facto dictatorship like this shouldn’t be so wealthy and successful[...] It's also worth noting that the entirety of Singapore just barely exceeds the area enclosed by Washington DC's beltway. Whatever their form of government, small city states are always going to be able to avoid many of the pitfalls of larger countries. There's effectively only one level of government to deal with, and the despot is…

This sounds like an argument for smaller nations?

Welcome to feudalism.

Re: Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

#98

Post by PurpleBoxDragon »

nindalf wrote: post #15

I see people in this thread surprised that this is happening in Singapore, a “modern” country. Singapore is certainly wealthy, the population is highly educated, institutions aren’t corrupt, all of which is great. However, the political system resembles a democracy only superficially. Every election since 1965 has been won by the same party. It is inconceivable that the People’s Action Party wouldn’t win an election…

I don't think the issue is that 'good' dictators are so rare (one in a million), but that they are rare enough that two back to back is extremely rare and three back to back is beyond hope, even if each dictator tries their best to train up their replacement. As such the real test of these systems is how they fair after the original dictator is gone. Singapore is currently in the middle of their test and the grade won't be seen for a while.

Re: Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

#99

Post by gerbilly »

flag_bcz_mad wrote: post #23

Why does everyone assume democracy is good? It clearly wasn’t necessary for Singapore. A well run “dictatorship” is much better than your average democracy. I would concede that a democracy filled with the right people is the best but in reality it is very rare to come upon a population that is actually ready to govern itself. People generally have extremely reductionist and incorrect opinions about such things in my…

> A well run “dictatorship” is much better than your average democracy.

Until the benevolent dictator dies and is replaced with a 'less principled dictator'.

Re: Singapore activist found guilty of hosting ‘illegal assembly’ via Skype

#100

Post by elliekelly »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #53
cinquemb wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over regulated daily life (though very well run) combined with being very culturally bland automaton like outside of very few pockets, mixed with Israeli militarism applied to its own people, just doesn't feel very welcoming compared to say Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia. Some of my wife's family has lived there and Indonesia for a while, and it is agreed that out of all the places in SE asia, it is a good place to…

> Some of my wife's family has lived there and Indonesia for a while, and it is agreed that out of all the places in SE asia, it is a good place to make money and potentially for schooling when young, they plan on moving when retiring. Not having to shoulder the cost of an aging population would work very well for SG.

> Not having to shoulder the cost of an aging population would work very well for SG.

One (surprising) way Singapore addresses the cost of caring for an aging population is Singapore's "Maintenance of Parents Act"[1] which basically permits parents to sue their adult children for alimony.

[1]http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1614_200...

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