4 ms·

I didn't get the drug angle either. Most countries of the world are harsh on drugs. Even in Thailand or Indonesia, I do believe, if the corrupt police desire to

by nbevans 11y ago

I didn't get the drug angle either. Most countries of the world are harsh on drugs. Even in Thailand or Indonesia, I do believe, if the corrupt police desire to, they can throw the book at you for smoking something they deem on that occasion to be illegal. If you are living somewhere not as a citizen then you really ought to steer clear of drugs as there will not be a legal catch-net for you like you might be used to in your homeland. SG government is second to none. But it is too young to say whether or not SG has found a political model that will last for centuries. I doubt it. They are just lucky that so far, the Lee family, have been incredibly upstanding honest people. So long as the Lee family stays as strong and decent as it has then hopefully that will not change. SG has big fines for most things, especially apparent on their MRT metro. But look at the fine signage in any world metro system and you'll realise SG is barely any different. Yes, you cannot take ghastly smelling Durian fruit on the metro here or you face a steep fine. That's because it smells awful. If you actually tried to do it I doubt you'd even get past the MRT ticket barriers before an attendant stopped you and told you if you continued you'd be breaking the law. The actual fine is just a shock tactic more than anything. Chewing gum... well good luck trying to buy any in SG since the import is banned. So that just leaves tourists who bring a stockpile with them and deliberately don't surrender it at customs. I wish the UK banned chewing gum too as within the 5 years the street pavements would probably be all clean. Yes, so what, Singapore has cleanliness OCD which resulted in a chewing gum ban. So what? Why is that bad!?

crdb 11y ago
Yeah, it can go two ways. Either it goes the way of the Venetian Republic, where the wealthy in power start regulating away the possibility of moving up and begin the process of corrupting the state; or LKY has succeeded in changing the fundamental culture of the country (e.g. everybody speaks English today thanks to him) to promote the rule of law and lack of corruption regardless of who runs the country. I'm scared of the first outcome, which is overwhelmingly the case historically. But the Singaporeans I know - particularly those in government, who are extremely idealistic about probity - make me think that the second is a possibility. We'll know in 40 years... As for drugs, I think there is no true rule of law in any other country in the region. At a previous company, we annoyed one of the ruling families of one of the countries mentioned in this thread, and found ourselves fined several hundred thousand dollars because the students we paid to hand out leaflets in the street - technically "manual labour" - were not wearing hard hats and work boots. Let's not mention a certain airport whose construction siphooned several billions into the pockets of a similar family. But by and large it's known that you can head off to Bali or Bangkok and get your fix. Personally, I don't really care as a non-user (although am pro-legalization as a matter of principle), there are more important things to worry about... like the rule of law.

by nbevans 11y ago

crdb 11y ago

Yeah, it can go two ways. Either it goes the way of the Venetian Republic, where the wealthy in power start regulating away the possibility of moving up and begin the process of corrupting the state; or LKY has succeeded in changing the fundamental culture of the country (e.g. everybody speaks English today thanks to him) to promote the rule of law and lack of corruption regardless of who runs the country. I'm scared of the first outcome, which is overwhelmingly the case historically. But the Singaporeans I know - particularly those in government, who are extremely idealistic about probity - make me think that the second is a possibility. We'll know in 40 years... As for drugs, I think there is no true rule of law in any other country in the region. At a previous company, we annoyed one of the ruling families of one of the countries mentioned in this thread, and found ourselves fined several hundred thousand dollars because the students we paid to hand out leaflets in the street - technically "manual labour" - were not wearing hard hats and work boots. Let's not mention a certain airport whose construction siphooned several billions into the pockets of a similar family. But by and large it's known that you can head off to Bali or Bangkok and get your fix. Personally, I don't really care as a non-user (although am pro-legalization as a matter of principle), there are more important things to worry about... like the rule of law.