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

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

#121

Post by baybal2 »

thirteen37 wrote: post #113
baybal2 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

So it is transitioning from manufacturing to offshore banking, and yet it's a one-trick pony?

Well, a two trick pony then...

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

#122

Post by rorykoehler »

toyg wrote: post #111
jessaustin wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like an argument for smaller nations?

In fact, many argue that modern globalization is better suited to smaller forms of government than the XVIII century typical Nation-State on the French model. The concept of "Europe of Cities", on the model of federal Germany, is actually pretty compelling: most citizens of, say, London, have more in common with the citizens of Milan or Prague than they share with home-county backwaters; and the instances of the Brit…

I've long suspected that we should aim for more city states and less bloat. Do you have any further reading on the topic that you would recommend?

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

#123

Post by SllX »

api wrote: post #84
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…

It constantly shocks me how many hackers worship Singapore. I know many. I mean it's not anywhere close to the worst place. It has a good economy and better rule of (incredibly strict) law than many. But I just find it shocking to see it held up as a near utopia and see hacker friends of mine sharing glitzy Singapore propaganda videos on Facebook.

To the type of person that dreams of living in a small space with little more than a laptop and a remote job, with all the necessary infrastructure for life externalized, Singapore looks pretty appealing for basically all the reasons you stated.

Good economy, but also good food which matters when you don’t plan to cook for yourself. Good transit infrastructure going anywhere you need or desire to go, so you don’t have to have a car. One level of government, so reduced complexity dealing with all those annoying things that hackers think are stupid and dumb, like taxes. Only thing it is really missing is the kind of critical mass of hackers that would make it into Y Combinator in City-State form.

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

#124

Post by rayiner »

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…

This is a good point. Free societies don’t arise from education and wealth, but rather peoples’ culture. US GDP per capita in 1870 was about $3,000 in today’s dollars, comparable to Syria. Most African countries have a higher ratio of primary school enrollment today than the US did then.

There is a very odd conceit among Americans. We believe our culture is universal, which causes us to devalue it and asset culture doesn’t matter. We assume the natural outcome of education and economic development worldwide will be western-style individualist free societies, so there is no need to protect western culture from globalism.

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

#125

Post by kreeWall »

philliphaydon wrote: post #64
cinquemb wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should see their subways when they are littered with signs for people to get pregnant. "Pool of citizens aged 65 and older grew to 14.4% this year, from 9.4% in 2007, as lifespans increase and births stay low"[0] [0] https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/spore-ageing-at-faste...

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)

Singapore once aired a commercial during their National Day Parade about making babies, sponsored by mentos obviously. [1]

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxU89x78ac

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

#126

Post by kreeWall »

elliekelly wrote: post #101
bobcostas55 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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...

It's also my understanding that almost everyone in Singapore lives in some sort of government-subsidized housing. The system is structured such that it's difficult to get an apartment or buy a house unless you're married so many typical Singaporean households have several adults earning an income under the same roof.[1] [1] https://www.economist.com/asia/2017/07/06/why-80-of-singapor...

Clarification - Singaporeans live in these flats (HDB housing) - not expatriates. Expat families live in different neighborhoods, different apartments, go to different schools and eat in different places than the locals. No part of an expat life is subsidized. It is therefore unfair to say that almost everyone in Singapore lives in subsidized housing - almost all of the Singaporeans do.

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

#127

Post by frenchy »

api wrote: post #84
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…

It constantly shocks me how many hackers worship Singapore. I know many. I mean it's not anywhere close to the worst place. It has a good economy and better rule of (incredibly strict) law than many. But I just find it shocking to see it held up as a near utopia and see hacker friends of mine sharing glitzy Singapore propaganda videos on Facebook.

How come you call your fiend a hacker? Ever since the late 90's the term has largely been co-opted by the "iamverysmart" type of people.

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

#128

Post by rorykoehler »

Nasrudith wrote: post #69
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…

Why are you assuming Singapore is truly well run? Dictators lie their asses off about quality of life and paper over problems with violence. Just wealth isn't a reason - Saudi Arabia is wealthy but sure as hell not well run.

Singapore is exceptionally well run. I'm posting this from the sofa in a HDB (government built housing). Sure it has its problems as this story identifies but it is the safest most well built city I've ever been in and I've been all over the world.

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

#129

Post by api »

frenchy wrote: post #127
api wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It constantly shocks me how many hackers worship Singapore. I know many. I mean it's not anywhere close to the worst place. It has a good economy and better rule of (incredibly strict) law than many. But I just find it shocking to see it held up as a near utopia and see hacker friends of mine sharing glitzy Singapore propaganda videos on Facebook.

How come you call your fiend a hacker? Ever since the late 90's the term has largely been co-opted by the "iamverysmart" type of people.

Thanks. I've seen that too but never had a fitting term.

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

#130

Post by [deleted] »

nailer wrote: post #109
EliRivers wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government specifically chose not to authorise their use. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretarys-oral-...

Theresa May, a political opponent of Boris Johnson, specifically chose not to authorise their use after they had been purchased, as an attack on Johnson.

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