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Let's not forget Singapore is pretty autocratic. That surely makes it easier to cut through any bureaucracy and privacy regulations, for example when you quickl

Let's not forget Singapore is pretty autocratic. That surely makes it easier to cut through any bureaucracy and privacy regulations, for example when you quickly need an app to track people and COVID-19 infections. However, that also makes it easier to do the same in times of peace.

lazylizard 7y ago
Singapore is nowhere near autocratic enough. China built a hospital in 2 weeks? In singapore the tender wouldn't be out in 2 weeks. Generally theres rules. Generally the rules can be changed. But generally rules don't get broken.
jhanschoo 7y ago
No, let's not prematurely chalk up to ideology what is more reasonably explained by a capable government and a smaller country. Autocracy didn't help China nip the pandemic in the bud. Conversely, democratic Taiwan is managing the crisis excellently as well. I observe this reaching for ideological explanations extremely frequently in US media and citizens, and these lazy rationalizations seem to me to be one of the ways the US public sphere collectively hallucinates that that they are the freest and first in the world, while promoting ideological tribalism and partisanship, as citizens vote away their interests to protect their ideological delusion.
- mthoms 7y ago
  I've long thought this, but you've articulated it way better than I ever could, so thank you. I'd argue that the "smaller country" explanation is also over-used. For example, when single-payer healthcare, gun control or effective government comes up, I often hear the excuse "The US is way more populous than $nation_x so it would never work here!". When asked to further explain their reasoning, many (certainly not all) can't seem to. It's like they never think past the nation-size excuse because it's simply accepted as fact.
  - jhanschoo 7y ago
    I agree that "smaller country" really is also overused. I suppose what I was getting at was the distance of the highest levels of government from the citizen. Taiwan certainly isn't a small country, but its government is certainly in a closer relationship with its citizens concerns than the federal government is with US citizens.
yardie 7y ago
> Let's not forget Singapore is pretty autocratic. This may have been true in the 90s when Singapore was transforming it's economy but it's not true now and hasn't been the case in over a decade. It's a country with a large service economy, well educated workforce, and burgeoning middle class. It's also very tiny with a strong national identity. If the government says they are going to do something, unlike the US, the public trusts they are going to do it.
bwilli123 7y ago
Might the difference be the the quality of the Public Service in China and Singapore is much higher than elsewhere? https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-24873-5_3 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-24873-5_...
thisrod 7y ago
I think what matters for 3D maps is that Singapore is new. Pretty much everything was built in the last few decades. Anything older than that is now treasured heritage, and would have been studied to within an inch of its life. And the buildings are big; no doubt some architecture firm still has the Autocad files for half of them. This would be harder in a city where lots of things date back to the 19th Century, and architects were rarely involved in building them.

lazylizard 7y ago

Singapore is nowhere near autocratic enough. China built a hospital in 2 weeks? In singapore the tender wouldn't be out in 2 weeks. Generally theres rules. Generally the rules can be changed. But generally rules don't get broken.

jhanschoo 7y ago

No, let's not prematurely chalk up to ideology what is more reasonably explained by a capable government and a smaller country. Autocracy didn't help China nip the pandemic in the bud. Conversely, democratic Taiwan is managing the crisis excellently as well. I observe this reaching for ideological explanations extremely frequently in US media and citizens, and these lazy rationalizations seem to me to be one of the ways the US public sphere collectively hallucinates that that they are the freest and first in the world, while promoting ideological tribalism and partisanship, as citizens vote away their interests to protect their ideological delusion.

mthoms 7y ago
I've long thought this, but you've articulated it way better than I ever could, so thank you. I'd argue that the "smaller country" explanation is also over-used. For example, when single-payer healthcare, gun control or effective government comes up, I often hear the excuse "The US is way more populous than $nation_x so it would never work here!". When asked to further explain their reasoning, many (certainly not all) can't seem to. It's like they never think past the nation-size excuse because it's simply accepted as fact.
- jhanschoo 7y ago
  I agree that "smaller country" really is also overused. I suppose what I was getting at was the distance of the highest levels of government from the citizen. Taiwan certainly isn't a small country, but its government is certainly in a closer relationship with its citizens concerns than the federal government is with US citizens.

yardie 7y ago

> Let's not forget Singapore is pretty autocratic. This may have been true in the 90s when Singapore was transforming it's economy but it's not true now and hasn't been the case in over a decade. It's a country with a large service economy, well educated workforce, and burgeoning middle class. It's also very tiny with a strong national identity. If the government says they are going to do something, unlike the US, the public trusts they are going to do it.

bwilli123 7y ago

Might the difference be the the quality of the Public Service in China and Singapore is much higher than elsewhere? https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-24873-5_3 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-24873-5_...

thisrod 7y ago

I think what matters for 3D maps is that Singapore is new. Pretty much everything was built in the last few decades. Anything older than that is now treasured heritage, and would have been studied to within an inch of its life. And the buildings are big; no doubt some architecture firm still has the Autocad files for half of them. This would be harder in a city where lots of things date back to the 19th Century, and architects were rarely involved in building them.