Having been to Singapore a few times myself, I don't agree the locals think they are oppressed. It's a country with different values and circumstances. They are mostly happy with what they got and are not interested in how we think they should live. Several times strangers I talked to on the street ended our converstation with "welcome to Singapore". Pretty friendly and proud of themselves if you ask me.
Keep in mind Singapore is a city-state. Not a big place with countryside, wilderness, diverse regions. I find all city dwellers to act somewhat like automatons. If the United States consisted of solely the city of Washington D.C. I think your impression of the country wouldn't be too high either. Singaporeans didn't strike me as unhappy. They were a lot happier than most city dwellers I've seen. Vast majority of Singaporeans I talked to liked their system, major complaint was the place was too small.
Singapore is a very prosperous city-state. They like things clean and orderly. As for their laws, if you're not in the habit of breaking them, don't worry about it. Singaporeans are most uptight with drug laws. If you get caught with a joint, you just might get a bullet in the head. I was mostly paranoid about someone slipping something into my luggage.
There were quite a few things I was impressed with Singapore:
1. Compassionate Conservatism that actually works. No welfare problem there, only workfare. No lazy homeless bums whinning about lack of handouts.
2. Charity works. Much of the humane institutions are charity, not government driven. Singaporeans are very giving, and you could see a lot of school kids about raising money.
3. Education. Sinaporeans are well educated, even the poor. Kids take school very seriously, you just don't see the teen-pregnancy, drug use, dropout problems like here.
4. Lack of corruption. Most Asian countries are riddled with government corruption. The Singaporean government is very by the book. We have a lot to learn from them in this regard.
5. Military service. Singapore has a pretty good military using universal conscription modeled on the Swiss. I find this gives a great deal of comadery to the citizentry. Perhaps this also explains the heavily regulation based society.
6. Religious tolerance. You literally see churches, mosques, Buddhist temples right next to eachother. These religions are respectful with one another, and you don't have abnoxious evangelists pushing religion either.
There are minuses of course. The government is elitist and seem to think that unless you have a PhD in political science or economics you got no business debating public issues. The average Joe doesn't ever seem to talk about serious issues. The TV airwaves is all about shopping and eating.
I think it's quite interesting Singapore has taken such a different route and that it works for them. I won't want my country like that but different strokes for different folks.
Keep in mind Singapore is a city-state. Not a big place with countryside, wilderness, diverse regions. I find all city dwellers to act somewhat like automatons. If the United States consisted of solely the city of Washington D.C. I think your impression of the country wouldn't be too high either. Singaporeans didn't strike me as unhappy. They were a lot happier than most city dwellers I've seen. Vast majority of Singaporeans I talked to liked their system, major complaint was the place was too small.
Singapore is a very prosperous city-state. They like things clean and orderly. As for their laws, if you're not in the habit of breaking them, don't worry about it. Singaporeans are most uptight with drug laws. If you get caught with a joint, you just might get a bullet in the head. I was mostly paranoid about someone slipping something into my luggage.
There were quite a few things I was impressed with Singapore:
1. Compassionate Conservatism that actually works. No welfare problem there, only workfare. No lazy homeless bums whinning about lack of handouts.
2. Charity works. Much of the humane institutions are charity, not government driven. Singaporeans are very giving, and you could see a lot of school kids about raising money.
3. Education. Sinaporeans are well educated, even the poor. Kids take school very seriously, you just don't see the teen-pregnancy, drug use, dropout problems like here.
4. Lack of corruption. Most Asian countries are riddled with government corruption. The Singaporean government is very by the book. We have a lot to learn from them in this regard.
5. Military service. Singapore has a pretty good military using universal conscription modeled on the Swiss. I find this gives a great deal of comadery to the citizentry. Perhaps this also explains the heavily regulation based society.
6. Religious tolerance. You literally see churches, mosques, Buddhist temples right next to eachother. These religions are respectful with one another, and you don't have abnoxious evangelists pushing religion either.
There are minuses of course. The government is elitist and seem to think that unless you have a PhD in political science or economics you got no business debating public issues. The average Joe doesn't ever seem to talk about serious issues. The TV airwaves is all about shopping and eating.
I think it's quite interesting Singapore has taken such a different route and that it works for them. I won't want my country like that but different strokes for different folks.