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Having grown up in Singapore for 3 years (first through third grade) I for one was completely in love with the place. This was in the late 70s, however, and som

Having grown up in Singapore for 3 years (first through third grade) I for one was completely in love with the place. This was in the late 70s, however, and some of the "dirt" still existed at that time. In fact, our flat (a 20-story apartment building) was right next to a "kampung", which was a shanty tin-roof village with chickens running this way and that, inhabited by very poor native people. Their sole means of income, from what I remember, was by pulling magnets out of TVs and radios and selling the magnets... to whom I have no idea. It's my understanding that none of those kampungs exist in Singapore any longer, and I've often wondered where all of the people were sent.

notahacker 12y ago
Most of them probably ended up in the same nice little flats everyone else in Singapore now lives in, unless they weren't Singaporean citizens. There's a reason people keep voting for the PAP, and it's not just the prevailing culture being rather more tolerant or even favourable towards overbearing government than Americans.
VLM 12y ago
"selling the magnets... to whom I have no idea" In those pre ceramic supermagnet days those were probably alnico magnets (aluminum, nickel, cobalt) and although you get $4/lb for scrap nickel you'll only get $1/lb or so for alnico magnets from a scrap metal dealer, today. Where you'd get your feedstock from is a complete mystery as the scam of "recycling" by shipping used electronic to the 3rd world is pretty modern. If you could get an infinite supply of gear (rejects returned to manufacturer?), I don't think it would be a challenge to rip apart speakers of that time and generate a roughly minimum wage income. Nickel is really quite valuable. Prices always vary but a tenth the cost of equal weight of silver is semi-stable-ish. Figure maybe a hundred times what you'll get for scrap steel. Or maybe two or three times what you'll get for copper. If there's precious metals, and semi-precious metals, I'd say nickel is just one step below the semi-precious, like wanna-be precious metal.
jzwinck 12y ago
One kampung remains: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampong_Buangkok http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampong_Buangkok That page says rent is $13 per month for each of 28 homes, and the entire thing had a purchase offer of $33 million which was rejected. Interesting place, for this an other reasons.

notahacker 12y ago

Most of them probably ended up in the same nice little flats everyone else in Singapore now lives in, unless they weren't Singaporean citizens. There's a reason people keep voting for the PAP, and it's not just the prevailing culture being rather more tolerant or even favourable towards overbearing government than Americans.

VLM 12y ago

"selling the magnets... to whom I have no idea" In those pre ceramic supermagnet days those were probably alnico magnets (aluminum, nickel, cobalt) and although you get $4/lb for scrap nickel you'll only get $1/lb or so for alnico magnets from a scrap metal dealer, today. Where you'd get your feedstock from is a complete mystery as the scam of "recycling" by shipping used electronic to the 3rd world is pretty modern. If you could get an infinite supply of gear (rejects returned to manufacturer?), I don't think it would be a challenge to rip apart speakers of that time and generate a roughly minimum wage income. Nickel is really quite valuable. Prices always vary but a tenth the cost of equal weight of silver is semi-stable-ish. Figure maybe a hundred times what you'll get for scrap steel. Or maybe two or three times what you'll get for copper. If there's precious metals, and semi-precious metals, I'd say nickel is just one step below the semi-precious, like wanna-be precious metal.

jzwinck 12y ago

One kampung remains: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampong_Buangkok http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampong_Buangkok That page says rent is $13 per month for each of 28 homes, and the entire thing had a purchase offer of $33 million which was rejected. Interesting place, for this an other reasons.