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Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

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Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#91

Post by isatty »

execat wrote: post #43
jnaina wrote: post #34

My father landed in Singapore in the 1950s on the steamship SS Rajula, eighteen years old with 10 dollars to his name, to seek his fortune, stepping into a crime-ridden, filthy slum. As he described it, people crammed into shophouses, kampongs (villages) and squatter settlements with no proper toilets (human faeces and urine were carted away by "night soil" men carrying them in open containers in the streets), no cle…

> thinking the japs will invade from the sea Be mindful of using terms that are widely recognized as racial slurs.

[flagged]

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#92

Post by jdw64 »

andrewflnr wrote: post #87
jdw64 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious: why are people told not to use the em dash and the semicolon? I honestly don't know. When I learned English writing, I was taught to use an em dash after words like 'by the way' or 'to add to that' — as a kind of aside. For hyphens, I was taught to use them in compound words. And for semicolons, I learned to use them when moving on to the next sentence within the same clause. Actually, this is formal wri…

It's entirely because it's one of the more obvious tells of AI writing. Most keyboards don't have an easy way to enter an em-dash, so they haven't been part of casual conversation for... decades I guess. AI has no such restrictions, and is trained on formal writing, so it uses them commonly. Similar but less strongly for semicolons. Most people just don't know how to use them. Regardless of whether you're using AI (p…

Maybe it would be better to use an AI translator. Because GPT has AI memory features, right? So when it translates, it often doesn't include hyphens or em dashes. But if you use a Korean translator, it has a function to attach hyphens to the language (kind of like Google Translate).

In Korea, it's not that difficult to input an em dash because you can type it using 'ㄱ + chinese characterbutton' (both based on the Korean keyboard). But I guess it's hard for people outside Korea.

Actually, since Korean doesn't have em dashes or hyphens, you could simply not use them at all. However, in 'formal' writing, I was taught that you should use them. just like you should use 'could' instead of informal alternatives.

This is really tough. When I use Hacker News, I keep a machine translator and DeepL open next to it. When I translate that way, em dashes sometimes appear, and that's what I'm worried about.

I thought this was obvious, but it seems like writing in Korean and then using an AI translator would be much better. The problem is that on this site, I'm not really allowed to use an AI translator either, so I'm almost being forced to write everything manually. The goal is to get overseas freelance work.

I had no idea that typing an em dash is difficult overseas. For me, it's just two buttons I never imagined that would be an issue. Thank you.

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#93

Post by cholantesh »

isatty wrote: post #90
cholantesh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>surrounded by hostile Muslim nations ( though not as bad as Israel, but still) What a bizarre non-sequitur.

How so?

Firstly, the 'Islamic' character of Malaysia and Indonesia has never really factored into Singapore's geopolitical confrontation or collaboration within SEA. Secondly, the narrative that Israel is some kind of plucky outpost standing up to barbaric Islamic hordes at its gates is, at best, profoundly naive at this point. There isn't a meaningful correlation to be found here except through the lens of intellectual laziness and Islamophobia.

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#94

Post by jabedude »

ggm wrote: post #3

Weaponised the court system to repress union backed opposition, despite having been engaged with the union movement in his early years (as I understand it) It is a kind of workers paradise. If you're well behaved and don't shout you get a good education, health system and housing. 95% owner occupied is pretty damn good. Huge dependence on south Malaysia migrant workers shuttling over the bridge every day, so it's "ho…

> If Powell hadn't been a racist shit, he could have been as effective as Lee Kwan Yew was

How do you compare Powell's "racism" and LKY's views on race and intelligence? By nearly all definitions of racism, Yew was a racist as well

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#95

Post by GenerWork »

ggm wrote: post #8
JadeNB wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many people would feel safer in Lee Kwan Yew's Singapore than in the USA. Better housing and health policy, less graffiti and street violence. Of all the things wrong with the USA, when picking just two, it seems strange for one of them to be graffiti. I have lived in the USA all my life, in some more and some less urban areas, and even from the people most afraid of cities I have never heard graffiti mentioned as…

Eh, you're right. It's just a bugbear for me, tagging and social cohesion decline feels like a parallel, but it may be my projection. I'm in Crete right now and it's decaying beauty, no money for streetscape fixes, bad pavements and unending dissatisfaction written all over the marble walls. I may be displaying my age. Feeling safe equates to being on the street, and unafraid. The tagging isn't the problem the social…

Greece has always had a huge problem with graffiti. I did a semester abroad in Athens, new graffiti popped up all the time, but I never felt unsafe.

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#96

Post by bjourne »

isatty wrote: post #90
cholantesh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>surrounded by hostile Muslim nations ( though not as bad as Israel, but still) What a bizarre non-sequitur.

How so?

For starters, Singapore wasn't founded by a group of ethno-national colonists who drove out the indigenous population...

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#97

Post by teleforce »

rayiner wrote: post #84
teleforce wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Ptolemy’s maps of the world I can assure you Ptolemy never been to India let alone Singapore. But hey you just deleted your Ptolemy narrative, are you misleading a narrative? Ironically although Ptolemy never been to Singapore it's apparently recorded in his book as Sabana [1]. Perhaps that the reason you deleted your Ptolemy entry. It's also recorded in ancient Chinese record in the 3rd CE Chinese traveller's recor…

I edited because I realized Rome was a much easier example. But at least according to Wikipedia, chittagong was one of the major seaports of the ancient world and appeared on Ptolemy’s world map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chittagong . The map was based on Greek knowledge of Asia through trade. But Ptolemy also described the Malay peninsula. As to your other point, again, you’re overlooking that places…

>As to your other point, again, you’re overlooking that places change over time

Not much change for Singapore, I know this because I learnt my history and geography properly, I hope you too.

Strait of Malacca has always been the busiest maritime trade route in the world continously since recorded history even until now, and at the heart of it is Singapore Strait where Singapore or Temasek is located.

Even until now most of the world's trade are performed via maritime route even with advent of aircraft, and guess what most of these trades when through Malacca and Singapore Straits. Maritime industry called these Straits the world's busiest trading choke-point. I'm not even exxagerating to say that Strait of Hormuz is nothing compared to this chokepoint, especially in the ancient time.

On top of that, more than quarter of the world's population since recorded history are living in China and India, and in between these two most populous nations are connected via maritime sea route through Straits of Malacca and Singapore.

In the old days, or most of our maritime trading history for thousand of years, we do not have engine for ships neither steam nor fuel, only for very short period recently starting from late 19th CE [1].

During most of our maritime history we use sails. People or sailors travelling between India and China, and returning back rely entirely on wind power that are based on alternate monsoon seasons. This where we got the famous saying of "time and tide wait for no man".

For one season (half a year) they used for travelling westward and another half season they travelling eastward. Either way, ancient sailors from Europe/India/China/Arab/Japan they need to stop over somewhere (read Malay Peninsular or Singapore/Temasek) while waiting for monsoon to change before returning back home. Since Singapore/Temasek at the end of this Peninsular, it's the most natural transit point for these ancient/modern sailors. Whenever you fly over Singapore take a look down to see these multitude of these ships. Although now in theory they don't need to stop for monsoon due to fuel, but realistically the ships still need for refuel/rest/transit/etc.

[1] From Sails to Steam Power:

https://www.marinmuseum.se/en/visit/exhibitions/from-sails-t...

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#98

Post by zuzululu »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #64
jdw64 wrote: post #33

Lee Kuan Yew is praised by Western academia because of 'benevolent authoritarianism' — in other words, the idea that a small elite should rule over the workers. In fact, his policies were authoritarian and dictatorial. Despite Singapore's geographical advantages, Lee's achievement in transforming it into a great financial hub is certainly a testament to his capability. However, when you consider his track record 'Ope…

Please modify your AI writing prompt to avoid semicolons, and the EM dash.

He's not a native English speaker so I suspect he is heavily using AI to generate his comments and seems oblivious to how em dash is viewed in the anglosphere post-chatgpt

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#99

Post by jdw64 »

zuzululu wrote: post #98
Der_Einzige wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please modify your AI writing prompt to avoid semicolons, and the EM dash.

He's not a native English speaker so I suspect he is heavily using AI to generate his comments and seems oblivious to how em dash is viewed in the anglosphere post-chatgpt

I've been shadowbanned before because of AI translation, so I'm doing manual translation. However, I didn't know that em dashes were perceived that badly

Re: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)

#100

Post by ggm »

jabedude wrote: post #94
ggm wrote: post #3

Weaponised the court system to repress union backed opposition, despite having been engaged with the union movement in his early years (as I understand it) It is a kind of workers paradise. If you're well behaved and don't shout you get a good education, health system and housing. 95% owner occupied is pretty damn good. Huge dependence on south Malaysia migrant workers shuttling over the bridge every day, so it's "ho…

> If Powell hadn't been a racist shit, he could have been as effective as Lee Kwan Yew was How do you compare Powell's "racism" and LKY's views on race and intelligence? By nearly all definitions of racism, Yew was a racist as well

Interesting. I assumed he wasn't. Bad assumption. I don't think he gave a "rivers of blood" speech but that doesn't let him off the hook. Maybe the difference was LKY got to be in control and Powell just got to watch from the sideline.
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