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The short answer is: there is much more to life than safety. For example, your son will likely be the safest if you simply lock him up in the bedroom for his en

by lgvln 3y ago

The short answer is: there is much more to life than safety. For example, your son will likely be the safest if you simply lock him up in the bedroom for his entire life - but that’s not a life worth living. 1) The surveillance is excessive and unnecessary in a country with extremely low crime rate. 2) Such intrusive and widespread surveillance is very problematic in an authoritarian state with a history of persecuting dissidents 3) Public funds spent on unnecessary projects means less for tackling issues such as high inequality It might not be apparent to one, depending on the area they live in, the wealthier areas receive much less surveillance than the public housing areas. Privately developed property do not have police surveillance in their lifts or estates and have less surveillance in the general area (eg. bus stops). Vice versa, the number of surveillance cameras is much higher in the low income public rental/housing areas. There is a lot of discussion on inequality in the US but Singapore has even higher inequality/Gini coefficient. There is much more than what meets the eye, especially in a state characterized by scholars as “sophisticated authoritarianism”. [0] [0] https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/south-east-asian-government-politics-and-policy/rise-sophisticated-authoritarianism-southeast-asia https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politi...

gmerc 3y ago
I live here. Right now. For years. I lived in the US before, I lived in Europe including Eastern Germany? I lived through the collapse of the eastern block. How is this not exactly what I just called “colonial mansplaining”? A bunch of quotes from a bunch of statistics and feel good metrics? Some handwaving about projects not spent for the common good? Which ones, do tell. Be specific, educate me about my oppression! Do tell me, how does this unreasonable surveillance manifest? Are you explaining freedom to me? Surveillance? Number of cameras === bad? Poor London. Poor american amazon ring infested suburbs. Seems like a bad metric. Also: All properties have cameras in their lift lobbies, by law. There’s no difference between private and public. Condo cameras are monitored by condo security and directly accessible to police. In practice - Haven’t yet to see weekly harassment by local police trying to make their ticket quota at a local high school - In fact, most of the police you see, if any, is kids doing their national service - Never once had a gun pointed at me by officials - happened twice in the US - Never stopped at a roadblock in 10 years. - Pretty sure internet wise it en par with what the NSA does, but setting encrypted DNS is all that’s needed to get past the porn blockers. - There’s a camera in my lift lobby. It seems to make it nobody steals my parcels. If I ever kill anyone, my freedom to move the body is infringed. - There was monitoring bracelets during early covid if you were on home quarantine. If I broke the law, the bracelet and the camera would have made short work of me. Singapore had a world class pandemic response with much shorter lockdowns than other countries. Gino Coeffient: That’s a long and nuanced conversation (part of Singapores Sentosa Island is literally built to attract rich people fleeing China) and having a high concentrations of billionaires destroys the statistic from the top and ignores that there is two worlds in Singapore. One for locals with subsidized housing (basically zero homelessness, 80% ownership, plentiful subsidies and almost free education) and one for foreigners with very very different economics. There’s plenty of legitimate criticisms one could make, especially on LGBTQ+ rights, etc, but this? please. If you are actually interested in understanding, I suggest this interview by the man we just elected President yesterday by a landslide. https://youtu.be/hpwPciW74b8 https://youtu.be/hpwPciW74b8 Otherwise, thank you for making my point exactly and perfectly. Stop for a moment and think just how arrogant it is to lecture someone living in a place you probably never visited about how their are oppressed with a bunch of statistics. And maybe don’t do it again next time and instead ask yourself if maybe your perception of the world is very limited from your vantage point of Cambridge studies and Statistics. Think for a moment of the freedom to not get bankrupted by a medical emergency, the freedom to be free of hate speech talk shows and politicians, the freedom to not have your home broken in my drug addicts, the freedom to jog at night in the park without fear are actually real freedoms people may care about.
- lgvln 3y ago
  First of all, do not attempt ad hominem argument by assuming you have knowledge of my race, background or gender. Second, a president elected through an electoral system purposefully designed by an authoritarian prime minister, whose party the same president-elect was part of, who was elevated to the unelected permanent position of Senior Minister in that party - hardly qualifies as a reputable source. Here are a few reputable alternatives written by Singaporean scholars: [0] https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/south-east-asian-government-politics-and-policy/singapore-identity-brand-power https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politi... [1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/authoritarian-rule-of-law/E7911140302F6029C738AD13A5D58D0F https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/authoritarian-rule-of-l... [2] https://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/products/air-conditioned-nation-revisited https://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/products/air-conditioned-natio...
  - gmerc 3y ago
    Thanks master for your colonial wisdom explaining the role of the president in the country I live in to me, very relevant. I am deeply moved by your superior knowledge and experience about my country. Also — ad hominem - there’s now way to criticize mansplaining with out addressing the man. So randomly throwing out latin phrases and invoking fallacies isn’t making you look smart. I indeed meant to criticize the person for engaging in behavior.
    - lgvln 3y ago
      The issue is you assumed I am white, male and a foreigner, and thus unqualified to discuss the topic. That is the definition of an ad hominem argument. You need to address my argument. Don’t take my word for it, decide for yourself. Check out the readings I quoted earlier, all of them are written by Singaporeans, are in academia, come from a variety of backgrounds and not all are males. If you’re short on time, academic reviews provide a good summary (on whether it is worth reading). Here’s one for you: https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/singapore-identity-brand-power-by-kenneth-paul-tan/ https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/singapore-identit...

by lgvln 3y ago

gmerc 3y ago

I live here. Right now. For years. I lived in the US before, I lived in Europe including Eastern Germany? I lived through the collapse of the eastern block. How is this not exactly what I just called “colonial mansplaining”? A bunch of quotes from a bunch of statistics and feel good metrics? Some handwaving about projects not spent for the common good? Which ones, do tell. Be specific, educate me about my oppression! Do tell me, how does this unreasonable surveillance manifest? Are you explaining freedom to me? Surveillance? Number of cameras === bad? Poor London. Poor american amazon ring infested suburbs. Seems like a bad metric. Also: All properties have cameras in their lift lobbies, by law. There’s no difference between private and public. Condo cameras are monitored by condo security and directly accessible to police. In practice - Haven’t yet to see weekly harassment by local police trying to make their ticket quota at a local high school - In fact, most of the police you see, if any, is kids doing their national service - Never once had a gun pointed at me by officials - happened twice in the US - Never stopped at a roadblock in 10 years. - Pretty sure internet wise it en par with what the NSA does, but setting encrypted DNS is all that’s needed to get past the porn blockers. - There’s a camera in my lift lobby. It seems to make it nobody steals my parcels. If I ever kill anyone, my freedom to move the body is infringed. - There was monitoring bracelets during early covid if you were on home quarantine. If I broke the law, the bracelet and the camera would have made short work of me. Singapore had a world class pandemic response with much shorter lockdowns than other countries. Gino Coeffient: That’s a long and nuanced conversation (part of Singapores Sentosa Island is literally built to attract rich people fleeing China) and having a high concentrations of billionaires destroys the statistic from the top and ignores that there is two worlds in Singapore. One for locals with subsidized housing (basically zero homelessness, 80% ownership, plentiful subsidies and almost free education) and one for foreigners with very very different economics. There’s plenty of legitimate criticisms one could make, especially on LGBTQ+ rights, etc, but this? please. If you are actually interested in understanding, I suggest this interview by the man we just elected President yesterday by a landslide. https://youtu.be/hpwPciW74b8 https://youtu.be/hpwPciW74b8 Otherwise, thank you for making my point exactly and perfectly. Stop for a moment and think just how arrogant it is to lecture someone living in a place you probably never visited about how their are oppressed with a bunch of statistics. And maybe don’t do it again next time and instead ask yourself if maybe your perception of the world is very limited from your vantage point of Cambridge studies and Statistics. Think for a moment of the freedom to not get bankrupted by a medical emergency, the freedom to be free of hate speech talk shows and politicians, the freedom to not have your home broken in my drug addicts, the freedom to jog at night in the park without fear are actually real freedoms people may care about.

lgvln 3y ago
First of all, do not attempt ad hominem argument by assuming you have knowledge of my race, background or gender. Second, a president elected through an electoral system purposefully designed by an authoritarian prime minister, whose party the same president-elect was part of, who was elevated to the unelected permanent position of Senior Minister in that party - hardly qualifies as a reputable source. Here are a few reputable alternatives written by Singaporean scholars: [0] https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/south-east-asian-government-politics-and-policy/singapore-identity-brand-power https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politi... [1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/authoritarian-rule-of-law/E7911140302F6029C738AD13A5D58D0F https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/authoritarian-rule-of-l... [2] https://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/products/air-conditioned-nation-revisited https://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/products/air-conditioned-natio...
- gmerc 3y ago
  Thanks master for your colonial wisdom explaining the role of the president in the country I live in to me, very relevant. I am deeply moved by your superior knowledge and experience about my country. Also — ad hominem - there’s now way to criticize mansplaining with out addressing the man. So randomly throwing out latin phrases and invoking fallacies isn’t making you look smart. I indeed meant to criticize the person for engaging in behavior.
  - lgvln 3y ago
    The issue is you assumed I am white, male and a foreigner, and thus unqualified to discuss the topic. That is the definition of an ad hominem argument. You need to address my argument. Don’t take my word for it, decide for yourself. Check out the readings I quoted earlier, all of them are written by Singaporeans, are in academia, come from a variety of backgrounds and not all are males. If you’re short on time, academic reviews provide a good summary (on whether it is worth reading). Here’s one for you: https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/singapore-identity-brand-power-by-kenneth-paul-tan/ https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/singapore-identit...