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I moved to Singapore

sivers.org

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Re: I moved to Singapore

#221

Post by danssig »

astrec wrote: post #58
keyle wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've visited Singapore twice. I've settled in Australia, originally from Europe. I was really worried when I visited Singapore and took their 'tourist' tour. They put you in a bus, drive you around all jetlagged and give you orange juice on the beach. Completely surreal. What really put me off was their unconditional love for their government. The woman 'tour guide' in the bus just couldn't stop thanking the governme…

Australians have no constitutional right to free speech, and some forms of speech are expressly criminalised via the sedition and various vilification acts. The only form of speech that enjoys some protection is political speech. So whilst Australian's can freely talk crap about the government, Australia is far from a beacon of free speech.

An Australian friend of mine mentioned that some time ago the British government dissolved the Australian government with a phone call. Can they still do that?

Re: I moved to Singapore

#222

Post by ericdschmidt »

Lucadg wrote: post #204
mdolon wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's always a line when I go to McDonald's, especially in the city. Usually not out to the street but at least 10-15 people long. Think about Best Buy or Walmart on Black Friday - people are on the streets camping for days. Same with an Apple product launch, people get there many hours ahead (even though they usually have enough for everyone). There's sick marketing and commercial brain-washing, if you call it tha…

ok, my fault. I said "a line" and failed to mention "a line of at least 100 people". It's fine to queue for good deals, or products you are passionate about but these guys were going to wait at least one hour to get some low quality ice cream on the most exclusive road in Singapore. I thought (of course I may be wrong) that they were not there for the ice-cream, the price or the atmosphere, but because they wanted a…

could have been a field trip. could have been free ice cream day. maybe there was a deal for students. and yeah, people everywhere like crap.

Re: I moved to Singapore

#223

Post by z303 »

evangineer wrote: post #174
z303 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sound like your describing Positive liberty vs. Negative liberty, and yes coming from the UK I do find the rules in mainland Europe at time strange. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_liberty http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_liberty

Thanks for the links. This actually relates to a paper that I've been collaborating on. BTW, Isaiah Berlin's concepts of liberty featured quite strongly in the Adam Curtis documentary series The Trap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trap_(television_documentar...

I do like Adam Curtis' work, caught up on the first two episodes of All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace this weekend, lots to think about, which is a good thing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Watched_Over_by_Machines_of...

Re: I moved to Singapore

#224

Post by kelnos »

mikemaccana wrote: post #74
phlux wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was the tour guide -- you get a completely different version of things in a candid discussion with friends who live there. I am by no means an expert on the politics there at all, but if one thinks that the us political system is not more corrupt at the highest levels then is simply delusional -- yet life is good for most of us in the US. I think that one can create a bit of there reality and are not 100% subjec…

Yes, but protesting isn't illegal in the us.

No, it's just restricted to "Free Speech Zones".

Re: I moved to Singapore

#225

Post by khafra »

teyc wrote: post #190
cletus wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in all fairness, Switzerland is much like Monaco, Beverly Hills and certain Carribean islands in that its poverty is essentially exported. Switzerland makes it very difficult to become a citizen unless you're born to at least one Swiss parent or you marry a Swiss citizen (there are people whose families have been living in Switzerland since the 20s who can't become citizens). There are a large contingent of wor…

The chewing gum thing is a bit weird. There was one incident when the entire MRT (subway) was delayed for a few hours because the doors jammed and wouldn't shut. Turned out to be a piece of gum stuck on the door.

Interesting. Sounds like when gum is outlawed, engineers build non-gum-resilient systems.

Re: I moved to Singapore

#226

Post by technomancy »

hboon wrote: post #209
technomancy wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in .sg, and it really challenged my notion of democracy as a universal good. The benevolent dictatorship there seems to have things figured out pretty well, while most democracies in the region are flailing in comparison. (or should I say alleged democracies perhaps? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman , etc.) Of course, "benevolent dictatorship" is not a form of government; it's just a dictatorsh…

Are you still here or travel back regularly? Would love to meet up.

I used to visit every so often, but my folks moved to Penang.

Re: I moved to Singapore

#227

Post by mdolon »

Lucadg wrote: post #204
mdolon wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's always a line when I go to McDonald's, especially in the city. Usually not out to the street but at least 10-15 people long. Think about Best Buy or Walmart on Black Friday - people are on the streets camping for days. Same with an Apple product launch, people get there many hours ahead (even though they usually have enough for everyone). There's sick marketing and commercial brain-washing, if you call it tha…

ok, my fault. I said "a line" and failed to mention "a line of at least 100 people". It's fine to queue for good deals, or products you are passionate about but these guys were going to wait at least one hour to get some low quality ice cream on the most exclusive road in Singapore. I thought (of course I may be wrong) that they were not there for the ice-cream, the price or the atmosphere, but because they wanted a…

That reminds me of the infamous Halal Guy's gyro cart located at 53rd and 6th in Manhattan. The food is sub-par at best but there is always a line of 30+ (I've seen nearly 100 before) people who, at least I think, are there for the experience more than anything.

There are literally dozens of other gyro carts scattered about the vicinity, some with much better food, yet that cart consistently has a huge line.

Re: I moved to Singapore

#228

Post by drinian »

jstewart wrote: post #216
drinian wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Singapore's position on race is difficult to characterize. This is what I've heard: Most Singaporeans live in government-owned housing blocks. The distribution of the races within each housing block is roughly the same as in Singapore as a whole. Within these blocks, you are only allowed to sell your apartment to another person of the same race as yourself. Officially this is to promote "racial harmony." That's proba…

"I've also been told that your second language in school (which is taught in English, a neutral language) is determined by your race: Mandarin for Chinese, Malay for Malaysians, and Tamil (!) for Indians." Remember though that Singapore is bilingual, so the "second language" will be the primary language spoken at home (although some Chinese may speak Hokkien or another dialect instead, and many families speak mainly…

Fair enough, it is a very different situation from the US where most students are taught in the language they speak at home (English).

Re: I moved to Singapore

#229

Post by deerpig »

sivers wrote: post #117
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. :-)

It's far easier to migrate to Singapore than Hong Kong. At best you'll be able to get residency after 7 years, but that's only if you can manage to get a work visa, which is not easy unless you work for a big company.

I lived in HK for 10 years and will go there every other month. I love HK. But it's not for everyone. People there say you work in HK you don't live there. And that's all you do, work, work, work and then take a break to do some other work.

After 10 years of 18 hour days 7 days a week, I moved to Thailand and for the last 12 years. I live 50km from the Laos border in the city of Udon Thani. I see trees and the occasional elephant from my room.

I live here and then run my business from other countries like Hong Kong and Singapore.

I like Singapore. Unlike Hong Kong they actually welcome people to migrate there. I will move all my operations there over the next year or so and get residency and then split my time between Singapore, Thailand and Laos.

BTW, Cantonese is a far more more interesting language than Mandarin. Mandarin is a second language for a large percentage of mainland Chinese. But it's good to learn for business. And in my humble opinion, simplified Chinese is an ugly hack from a committee that has stripped most of the beauty and meaning from the language. If you learn traditional first, simplified is easy to pick up and you'll understand the context and meaning behind the characters. Compare the simplified and complex characters 'country'. The traditional character tells a story, a country is a place with a border, which is defended with weapons and words. The simplified charger is literally, jade in a box. Yuck.

Re: I moved to Singapore

#230

Post by cma »

drinian wrote: post #181
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!

Singapore's position on race is difficult to characterize. This is what I've heard: Most Singaporeans live in government-owned housing blocks. The distribution of the races within each housing block is roughly the same as in Singapore as a whole. Within these blocks, you are only allowed to sell your apartment to another person of the same race as yourself. Officially this is to promote "racial harmony." That's proba…

I know nothing about Singapore or their motivations for the racial integration, but the official response is at least plausible; see e.g. Schelling's segregation model: http://www.google.com/search?q=schelling+segregation+model

There are several Java applets around that demonstrate the model.

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