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I moved to Singapore

sivers.org

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Re: I moved to Singapore

#111

Post by kristofferR »

vegai wrote: post #106
true_religion wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't possess or view pornography---that's a violation of free speech. There's more. But the only positive that's trumpeted about singapore is that their streets are clean and their city beautiful. This is good for the tourist, but not necessarily a place you want to move to.

"You can't possess or view pornography---that's a violation of free speech." I'm not sure I can digest that outright. Can you elaborate?

The law is not just about porn, but also other "obscene material" like pro-LGBT material, material critical of the regime (Wired is banned because of this), illegal Bibles etc.

Re: I moved to Singapore

#112

Post by fiblye »

middus wrote: post #88
true_religion wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't possess or view pornography---that's a violation of free speech. There's more. But the only positive that's trumpeted about singapore is that their streets are clean and their city beautiful. This is good for the tourist, but not necessarily a place you want to move to.

How is pornography related to free speech?

It's an artistic medium. While not speech, it's a means of expression.

If a person wants to distribute recordings of consenting adults having sex to those that want to see it, I see no point in criminalizing them for doing so. It's infringing on a basic human right and I don't understand how anyone could possibly be in support of such a frivolous law.

Re: I moved to Singapore

#114

Post by wyclif »

netcan wrote: post #96
yaix wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you take a look around Singapore's neigbor countries and their living conditions, you must admit that the Sing' government did a pretty good job so far. And then there is the asian culture of not being to critical to the "superior". You even have that in democratic Japan and SKorea. Talking crap about the gov is more a Western life style (mine too, 'cause I m from Europe too, but have lived in Asia long enough t…

I think we really need to watch out when we label certain sorts of thing Western. I know it usually comes from an attempt to be culturally sensitive, but it's just not true and potentially harmful. Gender equality is not rooted in Western culture. It sucked being a woman equally in Glasgow, Shanghai & Algiers. Gender equality was spread with difficulty and imperfectly over a decade in throughout liberal democracies a…

On gender equality, you speak in terms of black and white when in reality there are many shades of grey. For example, you say it "skipped the third world" but I think if you've ever been to the Philippines, which is usually classified as a third world country, you'd see that women have just as many rights and freedoms as in some Western countries. Filipino women can become doctors and engineers, and many have jobs in government.

Re: I moved to Singapore

#115

Post by wyclif »

rickmb wrote: post #105
mingyeow wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i live in both sf and singapore (50/50), and i am actually very much in support of these rules. my only grouse is the suppressed political scene, and i am glad that even that is being lifted in a slow but steady manner. and trust me, 90% of my friends have criticized the government in a very public manner on facebook/twitter. last i checked, they are still running around town and still complaining. do not believe 90%…

I've never heard executing people referred to as "quirky".

Lots of countries execute people. The US, for example. So I think it's unfair to single out Singapore in that regard, even if you're against capital punishment.

Re: I moved to Singapore

#116

Post by rickdangerous1 »

frossie wrote: post #17

The whole stay-abroad until you see "their" point of view is admirable. The flip side is that after that, you can never really go home. I mean obviously you can physically, but you give up your ability to fit in with your own people. This may or may not be a downside for you, but something to be aware of. Anyway, congratulations on your move. [edit in response to questions below: there is a big difference between liv…

Yes I agree with this, based on my personal experiences. It's called "reverse culture shock". The degree to which you experience it is a lot to do with how integrated you become in the foreign society.

Re: I moved to Singapore

#117

Post by sivers »

louislouis wrote: post #18

Did you ever consider Hong Kong as one of your possible locations to migrate to? And what made you decide against it?

It was near the top of the list, but failed on two big counts:

(1) - the air

(2) - Cantonese

I've already been studying Mandarin slowly for a couple years, and though I've heard I could have "gotten by" with English and Mandarin, I really wanted to just focus on Mandarin + simplified Chinese.

But mostly it was the air. :-)

Re: I moved to Singapore

#118

Post by helmut_hed »

kristofferR wrote: post #54
alnayyir wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Westerners who've never lived there and wouldn't be in any danger of suffering any of this "harsh" treatment love to complain about Singapore. Visit sometime with an open mind.

It's hard to visit with an open mind when you would risk several years in prison for doing what you would at home. Capital punishment is required for being in the company with someone possessing a small amount of weed. "Obscene material" gives you prison up to three months, 21 years if you make it avaliable to someone under 21. If you watch the movie Milk with someone under 21 years old, you risk 21 years in prison.…

Richard Dawkins would probably have been sentenced for long imprisonment without a trial

Can you elaborate?

Re: I moved to Singapore

#119

Post by Lucadg »

dualogy wrote: post #100
Lucadg wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years back I was at Singapore's airport and I saw, along many other signs forbidding most human activities one which still haunts me at night. There was this symbol of a person reading and the text was: no studying. Then one day while I was walking down Orchard road I saw a long line of people quieing on the street to get in...Sweansens (a chain crappy ice-cream store). That's when I decided Singapore was lost.…

Sounds like the good thing about Singapore seems to be that is successfully drives out people who go to pieces over others queueing for ice-cream... they must be doing something right there B-)

yep, their filter works :) but my point was not "queueing for ice-cream" rather "queueing for shitty industrial ice-cream". I would queue hours for good ice cream. I mean, they were driven there by some sick marketing effort, brain washed into thinking that there was something there worth the wait.

Imagine people queuing to get in McDondalds in your city. Dou feel it now? That's what I felt. Scary....

Re: I moved to Singapore

#120

Post by tokenadult »

rdl wrote: post #98
ido wrote: post #70

Race: Caucasian Maybe it's cultural bias, but I was really surprised they'd list something like that on an ID card!

It's pretty useful when trying to describe someone, or prevent a photo from being swapped out. Gender, hair color, skin color, etc. are all obvious physical traits.

"Race" is a useless descriptor for all four of my children. I've heard a lot of wild-ass guesses of their "race" over the years in public places. More detailed descriptive terms with less ambiguity would serve a lot better for matching photographs to identity cards, if that is the concern. (The internal political history Singapore might might refer to for identifying "race" on identity cards

http://www.mha.gov.sg/isd/ct.htm

http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/2011/01/danger-of-racial...

probably makes for different categories, with different definitions, from the definitions used in the United States, which fortunately does NOT put "race" on national identity cards.) Categorization by race on national identity cards is a matter of considerable concern to human rights scholars who have looked at real-world examples of that practice.

http://www.genocidewatch.org/images/AboutGen_Group_Classific...

The long answer about how ridiculous "race" is as a descriptive category can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:WeijiBaikeBianji/Anthropol...

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