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0 pointstim3335y ago0 comments

They've had some good results though. From poor and third worldy they now rank

GNP PPP/capita #2 (USA #7)

Corruption perceptions index #3 (USA #26)

Life expectancy #5 (USA #40)

they must have been doing something right. I'm sure the US was way ahead on all of those back in 1965. Also I was in that part of the world last year when the race riots broke out in the US and it looked terrible - Singapore is one of the most racially mixed countries in the world and seems to deal with that much better.

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pydry5y ago

They did a number of things right. Nonetheless under less fortuitous circumstances Lee Kuan Yew would still be ruling a third world country with an iron fist.

They've also had race riots - there was one while I was living there in 2013 on race course road.

Clewza3135y ago

That was the first riot in 44 years, and describing it as a race riot is a bit much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Little_India_riot

pydry5y ago

It was urban unrest driven by anger against systemic discrimination against people with dark skin triggered by a fatal accident caused by a perpetrator of a different race who wasnt punished.

I think arguing that it wasn't about race and bore no similarities whatsoever to America is stretching it just a bit. Don't you think?

Clewza3135y ago

You're looking at this through a very American lens. The riots were kindled by the many frustrations of being a migrant worker in Singapore, which are much more about class/poverty than skin color (for one thing, there is a very large Chinese migrant worker contingent as well), and it was triggered by a traffic accident, not (eg) police brutality.

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pydry5y ago

They did a number of things right. Nonetheless under less fortuitous circumstances Lee Kuan Yew would still be ruling a third world country with an iron fist.

They've also had race riots - there was one while I was living there in 2013 on race course road.

Clewza3135y ago

That was the first riot in 44 years, and describing it as a race riot is a bit much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Little_India_riot

pydry5y ago

It was urban unrest driven by anger against systemic discrimination against people with dark skin triggered by a fatal accident caused by a perpetrator of a different race who wasnt punished.

I think arguing that it wasn't about race and bore no similarities whatsoever to America is stretching it just a bit. Don't you think?

Clewza3135y ago

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j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse