> I remember learning about how in its early days, Singapore forced integration in its HDB flats (most of sg's population live in such flats). After attempts at

> I remember learning about how in its early days, Singapore forced integration in its HDB flats (most of sg's population live in such flats). After attempts at integration in the US, we had white flight and now this as mentioned in the article, while sg is probably the model multicultural society. Have you ever met Singaporeans? My best from college was from Singapore (of Indian origin), from what he told me, it's a very culturally segregated society. Keep in mind Singapore supports English, Tamil, Chinese and Malay. Ethnic Malays and Tamils will not learn Mandarin unless they really need to, and govt push for Mandarin could only lead to more resentment among these ethnolinguistic minorities. Singapore is not a democracy, so that's another reason why you can't or won't see the problems of the society just from the surface. When the govt forces these measures on the society, the end result is never pretty. When immigrants come to America, they integrate at their own pace. If I came to America with my family, chances are I'd have spoken my mother tongue for a lot longer than I did. I switched to English (speaking, reading, writing, and thinking) within the first two years. My wife on the other hand who came here with her family, she spoke a lot of Russian until she married me (nearly 18 years after being in US). Not just that, her family now speaks a lot more English (and a lot better). Whenever govt tries to 'impose' integration, people feel threatened that someone else is trying to steal their stuff (in this case, their culture, their identity), whereas under freedom they willingly do things differently, they willingly adopt other values or give away their identity. President Charles Heston couldn't have sold as many guns as President Obama did. Because of Obama, people suddenly feel that Second Amendment is very precious. If your son does not have any friends, then by kidnapping some kids from his class and forcing them to attend your son's birthday party won't make them be friends with your son, instead it would simply make them resent him more.