Lion without teeth - Book Review of "The Singapore Miracle" by Rodney King


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gooseberry

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Mar 11, 2004
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Might be an interesting read, not sure if it will be available in local bookstores....

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/07/03/book/book_30038759.php

What are your thoughts and some quotes from the article and book below ?


Most Singaporeans are not as affluent as their government makes out, King says in his extensively documented, 500-page tome.

Multinational companies and state enterprises predominate, and the economy has "low entrepreneurial and innovative capacities and an under-educated workforce".

The city-state's supposed affluence is also largely a myth.

"About 30 per cent of the population still lives in poverty by Western living standards," he says. And Singapore's Housing Development Board, Central Provident Fund and state-run health schemes have severe shortcomings.

What Singapore has been good at, he says, is marketing itself.
 

up for you.
 

Buy from Amazon lor. Depending on how this book is written, it may easily be branded as another Singapore bashing literature which contents are probably similar to our own coffeeshop talk. What is far more valued over citicising, something that everybody knows how to do, is contributing ideas to make something out of nothing and not make nothing out of something. If his book is all about criticisms, then it's another Singapore bashing book.
 

This is another load of crap from the western media and through western eyes and motivations. All you have to look at is the United Nations most livable cities, and you can see where Singapore sits with the rest of the world. Singapore is consistantly one of the best places to live in the world. I should know, I lived there for many years, and come back two or three times a year to visit my old friends and relatives.

My advice, ignore this book and others like it.

Paul Nelson
 

This is another load of crap from the western media and through western eyes and motivations. All you have to look at is the United Nations most livable cities, and you can see where Singapore sits with the rest of the world. Singapore is consistantly one of the best places to live in the world. I should know, I lived there for many years, and come back two or three times a year to visit my old friends and relatives.

My advice, ignore this book and others like it.

Paul Nelson

Its hard to give the writer any credibility when it looks like he's not being impartial and twisting numbers to suit his purposes. Wonder what the government will have to say about his book though.
 

Not the same Rodney King of the LA Riots I would assume..
 

Might be an interesting read, not sure if it will be available in local bookstores....

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/07/03/book/book_30038759.php

What are your thoughts and some quotes from the article and book below ?


Most Singaporeans are not as affluent as their government makes out, King says in his extensively documented, 500-page tome.

Multinational companies and state enterprises predominate, and the economy has "low entrepreneurial and innovative capacities and an under-educated workforce".

The city-state's supposed affluence is also largely a myth.

"About 30 per cent of the population still lives in poverty by Western living standards," he says. And Singapore's Housing Development Board, Central Provident Fund and state-run health schemes have severe shortcomings.

What Singapore has been good at, he says, is marketing itself.

Take a liberal view of our city-state, it's probably not bad. Nothing compared with the best, still better than 100 countries or 1000 cities in the world. Let's be honest and proud with ourselves, isn't it great with marketing as an achievement in itself? This could be a great guidebook in doing a better job in covering our tracks in future, whatever we're doing now is apparently not good enough to be the best. Obviously a con job to observers.
 

I believe a lot of what he says has a ring of truth in it, though many will dispute with his take on things.
 

"Marketing itself"

It made me wonder about the word "Marketing".

Lets look at what other countries does to market itself (in a conscious effort or sub-conscious effort).
- Australia is consistently being seen as the 'most desirable city' to live in either by nature of merit or ppl spreading the word.
- Japan had always tried to market itself as a friendly and livable nation with no 'gaijin discrimination' as perceived by most foreigners. Hell, even Shinzo Abe encouraged the push of anime to portray Japanese lifestyle.
- US of A. Everyone would have heard of tough immigration laws these days, but its sub-consciously seen by everyone as 'the guardian of democracy', 'the world's policeman for freedom & justice'.
- India & China. Ok, we all heard abt rural areas and stuff like that. What do these 2 countries scream now? "Land of Opportunities".

We don't recognise Singapore as an 'aggressive marketeer' of our own country since we live in it. Similarly, Australians, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Americans, etc, etc won't be able to see things that they themselves are living in. Its like..... trying to catch a glimpse of ur own nose in full view without the aid of a mirror.

U can see the tip but u wun be able to see everything.
 

There're definitely some truth and real facts in the book, as seen from the points in the review. It's slanted more towards politics than economics. The author hates Singapore, no prize for guessing who's the co-author or his sources. I wouldn't waste my money or time on his book. We'll be getting pointers and rebutals soon on our media and from our statespokesmen.
 

There're definitely some truth and real facts in the book, as seen from the points in the review. It's slanted more towards politics than economics. The author hates Singapore, no prize for guessing who's the co-author or his sources. I wouldn't waste my money or time on his book. We'll be getting pointers and rebutals soon on our media and from our statespokesmen.

co-author or his sources who are they?
 

Our Oppositions staying downunder. There're 200K Singaporean or ex there too. Some for $, some for children, easy lives and some very unhappy politically.

i can understand they're unhappy politically but they should be more factual about their complaints instead of just airing them...really interested in seeing the gov's rebuttal on this...
 

i can understand they're unhappy politically but they should be more factual about their complaints instead of just airing them...really interested in seeing the gov's rebuttal on this...

An object can be very different from the various angle that you shoot it from. Facts can be different depending on which angle you look at it. It's factual alright, it seemed to me to be logical most of the time. I'm not happy too, but I'm not unhappy to fight for it. When an unhappy Singaporean complaining and whining is one thing, but when some outsiders said it, it's an insult to me.
 

An object can be very different from the various angle that you shoot it from. Facts can be different depending on which angle you look at it. It's factual alright, it seemed to me to be logical most of the time. I'm not happy too, but I'm not unhappy to fight for it. When an unhappy Singaporean complaining and whining is one thing, but when some outsiders said it, it's an insult to me.

maybe they're just using him as a mouthpiece...
 

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