Monday 18 March 2024

Location. Location. Location

One of the conventional wisdom for Singapore's early success was its location.

"Situated at the crossroads" and "gateway to the orient" (so... Singapore is not "orient"?) Singapore's location is key (according to many analyses) to her success.

I would argue that it may be a necessary but insufficient condition.

After all, Penang and Malacca have historically been trading centres as well.

To the south, Bintan and Batam are islands as well placed as Singapore. 

Raffles chose Singapore in part to challenge the Dutch who were in (what is today) Indonesia. 

Tuesday 5 March 2024

Did Singapore get Taylor Swift on a Exclusivity contract?



PM Lee answers how SG got Taylor Swift to Singapore. Notice he says "negotiated an arrangement" (0:07) for Swift to perform in Singapore. "And to make Singapore her only stop" (0:10). At about 0:40 PM Lee says "we can't say, 'you will come here only on condition that you will go other places'". Note how uneasy he seems.

So, did Singapore make Swift sign an exclusive arrangement?

Sunday 3 March 2024

"You snooze, you lose"


Taylor Swift's Eras Tour has toured in Japan, and Australia, before the tour came to Singapore.

Sunday 18 February 2024

No need for mandatory vaccination.

[From Sept 2021. In draft and not previously published. It is a little incomplete, but I forgot what was the last point I wanted to make. And it's not really germane at this point in time.]

So the Singapore Govt has decided (at this time, end Sept 2021) that there is no need to mandate Covid-19 Vaccination

Because, we have already achieved more than 80% vaccination rate, and this should be sufficient for herd immunity; this should be sufficient for us to try to live with Covid.

Because, mandating vaccination to try to force the anti-vaxxers (and yes, I am going to call them "anti-vaxxers", because calling them "vaccine-hesitant" or "vaccine-resistant" is just putting lipstick on a pig. Those that are truly hesitant has had sufficient time to make up their minds, and no, the "time's up" is not of my making or my impatience. The delay in protecting everyone is allowing the virus a chance to mutate with every infection, and with every mutation, there is a chance of a new "variant of concern" to emerge.) to get vaccinated will lead to a battle of wills. 

And at the end of the battle, the anti-vaxxers will still be anti-vaxxers, but at the most, we would have forcibly vaccinated them. For some small increase in community protection. 

Saturday 3 February 2024

Would China initiate a forceable "reunification" of Taiwan in the near future?



1) If China's growth had continued to stay strong, then China could afford to be patient. China could simply continue to grow, continue to get rich and richer, continue to build up her Navy (and military), and train her Aircraft Carrier crew, and prepare to invade Taiwan in the future. 

Tuesday 30 January 2024

Tipping Points

This video suggests that even as the world heats up, it would thaw the permafrost, and that would lead to a tipping point.


So the world is trying to get to "net zero" when we add zero carbon into the atmosphere, so we do not add to the warming of the earth anymore.

Saturday 27 January 2024

SimplyGo and the Singapore Way.

 


So on Jan 9, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that the legacy "EZ-Link" card  that many Singaporeans have been using will be phased out. 

From 1st June 2024, only the new SimplyGo card can be used for Public Transport.