Singaporean here. Some thoughts: 1. The people I talk to don't really care about privacy in the abstract sense. I mean, nobody wants to be filmed or recorded,

Singaporean here. Some thoughts: 1. The people I talk to don't really care about privacy in the abstract sense. I mean, nobody wants to be filmed or recorded, but I think we all assume that the metadata is everywhere. We more or less assume that even the American NSA probably has data about everything we do. Eh. It's a small, tiny cramped city. You can't hide anything. 2. In my opinion, it's totally possible to criticize the Governement and its policies. I've done this multiple times, and have friends who have done the same. (My Facebook cover photo is still a picture of me onstage at a protest, lol: http://www.facebook.com/visakanv/ http://www.facebook.com/visakanv/) It doesn't get a lot of attention from the international public because we take the trouble to be nuanced about the points that we make (rather than accuse the Government of being corrupt, which is typically gets what people sued.) Singapore's satire muscle is still a little weak, I'll give you that. Give us some time, we've only been a nation for 50 years. (You know who it DOES get attention from, though? The Government! The civil service! They're actually serious about making Singapore a better place for their grandkids, and they're eager to listen to our perspectives.) 3. Re "Singapore is ridiculously expensive" – eh. I'm an average marketing guy at a software company. I earn enough to pay for the HDB that I own, support my wife and two cats, and have some nice things on top of that. It's not that ridiculous. I'm pretty comfortable. 4. Neuromancer was a pretty nice read. Disneyland with the Death Penalty, on the other hand, is an odd bit of fetishizing. I wish we could read American authors write about how dystopian AMERICA is, where the tree of liberty has to be watered from time to time with the blood of innocent children, and where black parents have to teach their children to be afraid of the police. (Neither of those things would be tolerated in Singapore– and I'm not talking about the State, I'm talking about the PEOPLE.) 5. The state is made up of people. Of civil servants, who are our brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles. Singapore is a tiny-ass place. In that regard, I get the sense that Singapore can't ever be as 'dystopian' as the US or China. I'm not being very articulate here, but consider Nassim Taleb's argument in Antifragile about cities vs countries. Singapore is a city. 6. Fun fact: The PM's sister made a bunch of accusations a while ago. She wasn't suppressed or arrested or anything of the sort. People joked that "only when your sister accuses you of abusing your power do you realize that there's a way of solving conflicts without suing for defamation" – http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/lee-wei-ling-s/2683042.html http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/lee-wei-ling-s... Singaporeans aren't glassy-eyed automatons who tremble with feat under the subjugation of their state. We're people who laugh and cry and joke and bitch and get by. We have things that we're proud of, and things that we're critical of. Somehow that never seems to come through in the comments sections discussing these articles. It's either "Singapore is horribly oppressive" or "Singapore is pristine and clean, tho kinda sterile" or some shit like that. JFC. Sigh.