Singapore is touted as being such a great place. The people as happy and welcoming, the airline is the best in the world, the women stunningly beautiful, the food exceptional in its scope and flavours, the weather tropical.
Yet below the surface of this island paradise lurks a meanness, a cunning brutality that few can truly comprehend for its soullessness.
I happened to be a reception a couple of years back.. The host was a foreign diplomat, the purpose being the promotion of that diplomats home country as a place to do business, banking business. Now, it's a strange thing but ministers and government officials seem somewhat less guarded than they might otherwise be on certain topics among bankers - perhaps it's the idea that there's a club amongst money men and men of political power, an unspoken common bond, a way of seeing things in common.
Whatever it is, the comments made to me by a minister of the Singapore government were most telling. The topic of conversation was the domestic savings rate. I understood that the average cash savings of employed people in Singapore equated to 2 months income - I ventured to the minister that I thought this rather low, what was his perspective?
The Minister confirmed the figure and explained the following:-
Now, to be fair to the Minister, he didn't use these exact words but what he was in effect saying was that by keeping the average person savings poor the government maintains a stranglehold on their very existence and thereby exerts it's will upon them. The people have no power and no resources to rsist when the government orders a wage cut or retraining into an area where wages are lower.
The average Singaporean is therefore a slave. Singapore is so obviously a model for the Orwellian future those in power have planned for us all we should pay close attention to that little island state for its methods are spreading throughout the developed world.
Yet below the surface of this island paradise lurks a meanness, a cunning brutality that few can truly comprehend for its soullessness.
I happened to be a reception a couple of years back.. The host was a foreign diplomat, the purpose being the promotion of that diplomats home country as a place to do business, banking business. Now, it's a strange thing but ministers and government officials seem somewhat less guarded than they might otherwise be on certain topics among bankers - perhaps it's the idea that there's a club amongst money men and men of political power, an unspoken common bond, a way of seeing things in common.
Whatever it is, the comments made to me by a minister of the Singapore government were most telling. The topic of conversation was the domestic savings rate. I understood that the average cash savings of employed people in Singapore equated to 2 months income - I ventured to the minister that I thought this rather low, what was his perspective?
The Minister confirmed the figure and explained the following:-
- The governments mandatory savings scheme - the Central Provident Fund (CPF) is the preferred savings method and all policies, including the setting of mandatory contributions, withdrawal rules and management rules are designed to ensure and enforce this policy of government controlled savings.
- Singapore competes on the "flexibility" of its workforce. The workforce is less "flexible" the greater its access to cash savings.
- Imagine, he said, if people had a year's worth of cash income in cash savings - they would be far less willing to go along with retraining, wage freezes or reductions and the general implementation of government policy.
Now, to be fair to the Minister, he didn't use these exact words but what he was in effect saying was that by keeping the average person savings poor the government maintains a stranglehold on their very existence and thereby exerts it's will upon them. The people have no power and no resources to rsist when the government orders a wage cut or retraining into an area where wages are lower.
The average Singaporean is therefore a slave. Singapore is so obviously a model for the Orwellian future those in power have planned for us all we should pay close attention to that little island state for its methods are spreading throughout the developed world.
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