Application Deadline: Program dates and durations will vary depending on location. Application deadline is therefore rolling Eligible Countries: Countries in Europe, the Middle-East and Africa (EMEA) To be taken at (country): Google’s offices – AdCamp programs are offered in multiple regions across Africa, Europe and the Middle East About the Award: AdCamp, open to all current or recently graduated university students from across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), gives participants the chance to get a 360-degree look behind the scenes at Google, develop a professional network, gain new skills, experience our culture, and learn more about career opportunities in a fun and inclusive environment. Online advertising is at the core of Google’s business and we’re thrilled to share the magic of our platforms with university students through Google AdCamp. AdCamp offers a collaborative curriculum focused on Google’s advertising sales and services operations, an overview of Google’s ad products and insight into the industry. Type: Training Eligibility: To apply, students must be:
Interested and have experience in sales, customer support, account management, marketing, or consulting
Experienced and have proven ability in managing and customizing experience to a customer base
A proven multi-tasker and able to manage multiple projects at a time while paying strict attention to detail
Proactive, independent worker with the demonstrated capacity to lead, motivate, and work well with others
Fluent in English, as all AdCamp activities will be conducted in English
Be currently enrolled in a final year of BA/BS or master’s program, in any major, at a university in Europe, Middle East, or Africa, or have graduated within the last 12 months
Number of Awards: Up to 50 Value of Award: If a student is selected, Google will cover transport (most reasonable mode) to the programs and hotel rooms if needed for the duration of the program. Duration of Programme: Within a week How to Apply: To express interest, please head to this form. Visit Programme Webpage for Details
Application Deadline: 5th October 2018 Eligible Countries: International To be taken at (country): Washington, DC, USA About the Award: In today’s era of technological change and the need for adaptability, human capital, in some measures, explains up to two-thirds of income differences across the world. Investments in human capital, specifically education, skills, and health, are not only key drivers of productivity and economic growth, but also contribute to individuals’ self-empowerment. The advancement of human capital depends on two main drivers: i) the quality of investment in the early years – covering childhood education, health and nutrition; and ii) maximizing the accumulation of skills, knowledge, and well-being throughout people’ life cycle. The successful combination of these two elements is key to achieving the World Bank’s twin goals of reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity as well as the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Do you have an idea that has the capacity to improve human capital and thereby positively impact your community, your country, and/or society at large? If the answer is yes, then the Youth Summit 2018 Competition gives you the opportunity to share your idea, connect with peers and high-level experts, and explore how to bring your idea to the next level. Contest Title: How would you spur innovations that contribute to shrinking the ‘human capital gap’ and foster the skills and well-being of individuals? This is your opportunity to submit an original idea aimed at increasing human skills, knowledge, or well-being related to at least one of the subthemes listed in either or both pillars below. Participants should propose an innovative and action-oriented idea on how to boost the foundations of human capital for children and/or enhance the skills, knowledge, and health of adults. The proposed solution (i) can be aimed at business or policy (e.g., product, service, program, policy, course, initiative, etc.), (ii) should solve a specific problem or challenge, and (iii) address at least one of the human capital subthemes in the two pillars below. Pillar I: Building the foundations of human capital[1] subthemes: a. Infant care and/or maternal health b. Childhood and/or early youth education c. Childhood health and/or nutrition Pillar II: Maximizing individual potential[2] subthemes: a. Life-long learning & training b. Adult & elderly health Type: Contest Eligibility:
The Competition is open to individuals or teams of 1-4 people, aged 18 to 35 inclusive as of 11:59 pm EST on 5 October 2018.
Teams and individuals are limited to one submission each.
The Competition is open to nationals of ALL countries of the world.
Active (at the time of the submission up until the closing of the Youth Summit 2018) staff of the World Bank Group, including Consultants and Interns, are not eligible to participate in the Competition.
Number of Awards: 2 Value of Award: Winners will receive in-kind prizes. Details will be announced at a later stage. In addition to the prizes, the YSOC will make all efforts to feature and promote Finalists’ and Winners’ ideas on the Youth Summit event page and social media platforms, and to provide exposure to Winners at high profile events, including, for example, webinars, workshops, and other events of the World Bank’s development partners globally Duration of Programme: December 3-4, 2018 How to Apply: 4. Submit your proposalby 11:59 pm EST, 5 October 2018 through the online Competition Submission Form. You will be asked to provide some information about yourself and other team members – if applicable – including a short 200-word bio for each of you, and to upload your proposal. Visit Programme Webpage for Details
Application Deadline: 5th October 2018 Eligible Countries: International To be taken at (country): United Nations Headquarters in New York USA About the Award: The Critical Needs Fellowship was established in 2017 as one of three core activities under the United Nations – Nippon Foundation Sustainable Ocean Programme. The Fellowship aims to assist developing States, particularly least developed countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, to address identified critical needs in the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and related instruments, as well as Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 and other related SDGs. Type: Fellowship Eligibility: Nominated candidates must meet all the following criteria:
Must be between the ages of 25 and 40;
Must have successfully completed a first university degree;
Must be Government officials dealing directly with critical issues related to sustainable development of oceans and seas including the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; national and/or regional ocean policy; establishment of maritime zones and the delimitation of maritime boundaries; coastal zone management; conservation and management of marine living resources; maritime transport and shipping; maritime security; the protection and preservation of the marine environment; and marine science;
The “Nomination and Recommendation Form” must be completed by a Government official who can attest to the nature of your work with respect to the Government’s ocean affairs and law of the sea related activities, and indicate how an Award would directly contribute to these activities;
The proposed study programme must contribute directly to the State’s formulation and/or implementation of ocean affairs and law of the sea policies and programmes;
Must be free of all non-Fellowship obligations during this entire period unless otherwise authorized by the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs.
Satisfaction of the above criteria must be clearly demonstrated by the candidate through the application forms and confirmed by a Nominating Authority. Women candidates are strongly invited to apply, with a view to achieve gender balance in the selection process. Number of Awards: Not specified Value of Award:
Fellows will be provided with a return air-ticket in economy class for travels from their home country to the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA.
Fellows will receive a stipend during their fellowship in accordance with the established United Nations rates for the host Country.
Duration of Programme: 4 Months How to Apply: The Fellowship application package consists of the following two forms:
This Form must be completed by the candidate, either typewritten or word processed. Each question must be answered clearly and completely in order to ensure that the application will be processed. While completing this form, candidates should pay particular attention to sections 18, 19 and 20. If necessary, candidates may attach no more than one additional page of the same size. –> Once this form is completed, it must be submitted by the candidate to the Nominating Authority along with:
This form must be completed and signed by the official nominating entity and must clearly identify the time-sensitive strategic needs of the State and how the candidate will be in a position to directly affect positive change with respect to these needs. –> Once completed, both the “Nomination and Recommendation Form” and the completed “Personal History and Proposed Research/Study Programme Form” must be forwarded to DOALOS through the nominating State’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. DOALOS reserves the right not to process incomplete and/or late submissions. Applications should be sent to: E-mail (Preferred): DOALOS@un.org The United Nations – Nippon Foundation Critical Needs Fellowship Programme Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea Office of Legal Affairs United Nations, Room DC2-0450 New York, N.Y. 10017, U.S.A. Visit Programme Webpage for Details
Application Deadline: 1st October 2018 To Be Taken At (Country): Brookings Institution, Washington D.C., USA About the Award: The Echidna Global Scholars Program is a visiting fellowship hosted by the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution. The program aims to build the research and analytical skills of NGO leaders and academics who have substantial experience and ties to developing countries. Echidna Global Scholars spend four to six months at Brookings pursuing research on global education issues, with a specific focus on improving learning opportunities and outcomes for girls in the developing world. Upon completion of their fellowship, CUE supports the scholars in implementing an action plan that applies their new skills and expertise in the developing country where they have demonstrated substantial ties. Type: Fellowship Eligibility:
Education /Experience Requirements: The program selects professionals with substantial experience in and ties to developing countries, a demonstrated intent to return to a developing country, and a passion and demonstrated commitment to girls’ education. Applicants should have a background in education, development, economics, or a related area, with at least 15 years of professional experience in either research/academia; non-government and civil society; government; or business. Master’s degree required; Ph.D. or research background strongly preferred.
Knowledge/Skills Requirements: Strong analytical and writing skills. Successful applicants will have an intimate understanding of education development issues and/or issues related to development and gender.
Number of Awards: Not specified Value of Award: Applicants selected for the fellowship will receive a living stipend of USD $5,000 a month (subject to U.S. tax withholding), paid housing for the four-and-a-half-month term, and round-trip travel expenses. Duration of Programme:
Tentative Residency Term: June 3, 2019- October 18, 2019
How to Apply: Brookings requires that all applicants submit a cover letter and resume. Please attach your cover letter and resume as one document when you apply. Successful completion of a background investigation is required for employment at Brookings. Visit the Program Webpage for Details Award Providers: Brookings Institution
Please note that this position is a part- time resident fellowship at Brookings (it is not an employee position).
Brookings is an equal-opportunity employer that is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from all qualified individuals regardless of race, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, physical or mental disability, marital status, veteran status, or other factors protected by law.
When Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria, the island was ill-equipped to handle the storm that claimed thousands of lives and devastated most of the island’s infrastructure, leaving it in the dark for months. Prior to the storm, Puerto Rico’s economy had already experienced two decades without economic growth, a rare occurrence in the history of modern capitalism. Neither a sovereign country nor a US state, Puerto Rico has had constrained ability to respond to negative economic shocks, while only receiving limited federal support. The island’s prolonged economic failure resulted in the accumulation of an unsustainable debt burden, and Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy.
Puerto Rico became a territory of the United Stated in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898. While residents of Puerto Rico were given US citizenship in 1917, they still cannot vote in US presidential elections on the island and have no voting representation in the US Congress. The UN officially removed the island from its list of colonies in 1953 after the US Congress approved a new name, the “Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,” along with a constitution that granted the island authority over internal matters.
Despite this semblance of autonomy, Puerto Rico continued to be subject to the Territory Clause of the US Constitution, which grants the US Congress “power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations.” Recent developments have shown beyond doubt that Puerto Rico continues to be a colony, with the island now effectively ruled by a Federal Oversight and Management Board (the Board), created by the US Congress, which supersedes the authority of the island’s elected government.
After Puerto Rico defaulted on its $74 billion debt in 2015, the US Supreme Court struck down a bankruptcy law passed by the island. In 2016, the US Congress then passed the “Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act” (PROMESA), to create a framework for Puerto Rico to restructure its debt. While many attribute Puerto Rico’s accumulation of unsustainable debt to irresponsible government spending, this narrative ignores the fact that much of what led to Puerto Rico’s prolonged economic failure was out of the island’s control.
During the last two decades of the twentieth century, Puerto Rico’s economy more than doubled in real terms as it became an attractive destination for US manufacturing, offering strong legal protections and relatively cheap labor. As the rules of the global economy were rewritten with the creation of the World Trade Organization and the passage of trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, Puerto Rico became much less attractive as a manufacturing hub.
The island’s economy has not registered any growth since 2005. Puerto Rico did not have the policy tools available to sovereign nations that could have allowed it to more effectively address the shifting global trade environment, e.g., by adjusting its exchange rate. Between 2005 and 2016, Puerto Rico’s economy was shrinking at an annual real rate of 1 percent per year. Investment, which was over 20 percent of GDP in the late 1990s, fell to less than 8 percent of GDP in 2016.
Furthermore, Puerto Rico did not receive the same federal supportthat US states do, meaning that as the economy worsened, its government had to foot the bill for a large share of social programs. Just in terms of health care, it is estimated that the Puerto Rican government has had to spend more than $1 billion per year more than it would have had it received the same reimbursements from the US federal government that states do.
By 2016, before Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico had a poverty rate of 46 percent, and 58 percent for children, and had already lost 10 percent of its population to migration. With higher overall living costs than the mainland US, and lower incomes, many Puerto Ricans have chosen to leave the island and seek better opportunities on the mainland. In Maria’s aftermath, Puerto Rico is predicted to lose another 14 percent of its population by 2019.
As Puerto Rico’s economy declined, so did the revenues of the government, which increasingly financed operations through borrowing. Puerto Rican bonds were part of US municipal bond markets, and carried special tax exemptions that made them sufficiently attractive that buyers ignored the island’s macroeconomic reality ― something explicitly mentioned in Puerto Rico’s credit assessments. The bonds were only downgraded to “junk” in 2014 after Puerto Rico could no longer make interest payments on its debt.
PROMESA established a process to reach a consensus with creditors, and, were that to fail, it created a legal path to access bankruptcy court, where the Board would also represent Puerto Rico. As part of the consensus process, the board was tasked with certifying a 10-year fiscal plan that would keep the government operational, provide essential services to residents, adequately fund public pensions, and set funds aside for debt repayment in agreement with creditors.
The Board has taken an austerity approach that fails to address any of Puerto Rico’s long-term economic problems and is likely to exacerbate the downward spiral of economic decline and out-migration. In the aftermath of Maria, despite inadequate relief, the Board is using the increase in liquidity provided by relief funds to set aside more funds for creditors.
Yet many creditors continue to demand even harsher austerity, and the bankruptcy case is currently being heard by a bankruptcy judge in the New York District Court. Ironically, many of the most aggressive creditors are hedge funds that bought bonds at a steep discount after the default, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
To add insult to injury, the undemocratically appointed Board is setting aside $1.5 billion of the island’s budget for its own expenses, including legal and consulting fees for the next five years. Many of the advisors and lawyers now profiting from the bankruptcy process are the same actors who were involved in issuing the unsustainable debt. Meanwhile, island residents face pension cuts, layoffs, benefit freezes, and school closures. Given that the people of Puerto Rico have no democratic representation or say in this process, it is not surprising that their colonial rulers are ignoring their needs.
An Iraqi joke says that their country must have the most environmental government in the world since the same political leaders are always recycled, however dismal their past performance and low expectations that they will do any better in future.
The biggest change in the next Iraqi government will be that Haider al-Abadi, appointed prime minister after the Isis victories of 2014, is unlikely to be heading it. He has conceded that he will not last in office after protests engulfed Basra in southern Iraq and led to important religious and political leaders withdrawing their support and calling on him to resign.
Mr Abadi’s fate had been in the balance since he did unexpectedly badly in the general election on 12 May when his coalition came in third. Weakened by the result of the poll, he needed to bring on side those who had done better such the nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, but he ultimately failed to do so.
Although Mr Abadi will not be the next prime minister, most of the top political players will be the same as those blamed by many Iraqis for misruling the country in the 15 years since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. A quota system dividing senior posts between Shia, Sunni and Kurds combined with the sharing out of ministries between the parties, favours permanent political stalemate and ensures a complete failure to tackle rampant corruption or to provide essential services such as electricity and water.
Mr Abadi had hoped that the defeat of Isis and the recapture of Mosul after a nine-month siege last year would win voters’ backing. The Iraqi armed forces followed up victory at Mosul by retaking Kirkuk along with territory long disputed with the Kurds in northern Iraq.
Security in Iraq has much improved since the defeat of Isis and over the last six months it has been the best since 2003. But Iraqis did not see Mr Abadi as the sole architect of military success and the low 45 per cent turn out in the election underlined their disillusionment with the entire political elite. Mr Sadr and his Sairoon group got the most seats by campaigning for progressive economic and social policies, followed by the Fatah alliance led by the paramilitary leader Hadi al-Amiri. Mr Amiri has withdrawn from consideration to become prime minister.
Mr Abadi, strongly supported by the US, might have clung on if he had kept the backing of the Sadrists, but they felt that their support had been taken too much for granted in the past. They wanted Mr Abadi to resign from the ruling Dawa party and endorse their reformist programme. Other politicians whom Mr Abadi needed to conciliate accused him of seldom consulting them and operating through a narrow clique of advisers.
Although the main players in Iraqi politics are much the same, the overall political environment has altered radically. Isis had been advancing on Baghdad when Mr Abadi first became prime minister and people feared massacre and displacement. But the defeat of Isis meant less concern for personal security and heightened resentment against the corruption and incompetence of the government, despite oil revenues that in August alone this year were worth $7.7bn. Mr Abadi could claim credit for defeating Isis, but many Iraqis felt that this was almost his only identifiable achievement.
The protests in Basra, at the heart of the area that produces most of the crude oil, were the most widespread and destructive since the fall of Saddam Hussein. They showed grievances boiling over in the majority Shia community. During this summer, which was hot even by Iraqi standards with temperatures rising to 50C, there was an electricity shortage in southern Iraq so air conditioning did not operate and there was too little drinking water.
The breaking point for many in Basra came when there was not only a lack of water to drink but thousands of those who did drink it became ill with diarrhoea and stomach complaints. There were fears of a cholera epidemic. Salt water was mixing with the fresh water because of broken pipes, reducing the effectiveness of the chlorine in killing bacteria. Hospitals said they had treated 17,500 patients, though this was denied by a government official who, showing a lack of sympathy that enraged people in Basra, said that the figures for those in hospital were much exaggerated and “only 1,500 people have been poisoned”.
Peaceful protests grew violent with 27 people killed as government and party offices, with the exception of Sairoon, were set ablaze as well as the Iranian consulate. Mr Abadi went to Basra but could not get a grip on the crisis. This was a final blow to his hopes of remaining prime minister. Mr Sadr withdrew his support and called on him to resign. The vastly influential Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani issued a statement saying that the next prime minister should be a new one.
The parties will eventually choose a new prime minister and a national unity government, in which all the big players will get a share of the political cake, but it is unlikely to be any more effective than Mr Abadi’s outgoing administration.
Imagine a country with 5.6 million inhabitants (of which around 4 million are citizens), surrounded by a collapsing giant – Indonesia – in the south and south-west, by the historically hostile Malaysia in the north, and that proverbial deep blue sea (Strait of Malacca, full of nasty pirates) over the horizon.
Officially Indonesia has 250 million mainly desperately poor inhabitants, but my friends, top UN statisticians working in Montreal, Canada (at the UNESCO Institute for the Statistics), believe that it has, already since one decade ago, well over 300 million ‘souls’ (remember the “Dead Souls” of Gogol, a pre-revolutionary Russian writer and his iconic novel about corruption?), some of them actually ‘so dead’ to the Indonesian government that it doesn’t even want to acknowledge their miserable existence, let alone to feed them.
Malaysia has 32 million people, and an incredibly complex and turbulent past.It is not a friendly country towards Singapore, which actually used to be a part of Malaya Federation for 2 years but got unceremoniously kicked out in 1965. While it is hardly ever pronounced now, the main reasons for the expulsion were that Singapore was ‘too Chinese’, and it had too many Communists at that time, including those inside the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).
From the very beginning of its modern-day existence as an independent state, Malaysia readily and shamelessly collaborated with the West, particularly with the United Kingdom, brutally suppressing all Communist movements. Singapore was seen as a ‘Communist haven’ by the West and by many Malaysian leaders. The ruling party of Malaya, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), was and always has been,a staunchly anti-communist force. It was interfering in Singapore’s politics, and was strongly supporting non-Communist wing of the PAP.
Needless to say, a sizeable pro-communist wing of the PAP was never too enthusiastic about the merger of their country with Malaysia. Predictably, the Brits were promoting the union, and for extremely pragmatic reasons – they believed that an ‘incorporated’ Singapore would be eventually forced into submission and its leanings towards Communism could then be easily side-tracked.
Malaysia gained independence from the UK in 1957, then Singapore was maneuvered into joining the Federation of Malaya in 1963.However, it was expelled two years later.
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ancient trees in Singapore Gardens
“Singapore shall forever be a sovereign democratic and independent nation, founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of her people in a more just and equal society.” These were the words of the “Proclamation of Singapore” by Lee Kuan Yew on 9 August 1965.
Now, more than 5 decades later, Singapore is acknowledged as the country with the highest quality of life in Asia, and one of the highest in the world. It has strong and effective government, extremely low corruption rates, and some of the best social policies on Earth.
It is also, wrongly, perceived by many in the West as an ‘extremely capitalist’, business-oriented nation.
About time to‘re-visit’ Singapore!
What has been achieved here since independence? What was the dream, the vision of Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), the country’s first Prime Minister, who governed with an iron fist but also with great foresight, determination and compassion?
Is Singapore really a ‘Mecca’ of capitalism, or is it, perhaps, a crypto-Communist or at least a socialist country; a ‘ban Communism but do it their way’ kind of nation?
Yes, the country is ‘transparent’, ‘open for business’, a great ‘magnet for foreign companies’. But investment does not disappear in deep pockets of local elites, instead everyone benefits here. And the government decides who is welcomed and who is not, and in which direction the country should be developing. Singapore is a curious hybrid of a controlled and planned economy, and of what is known as ‘free market’.
One room at an enormous National Library
I have some 25 years of history with Singapore. I do research in its libraries and archives; I admire its world class art institutions, brilliantly diverse food. And I simply enjoy healthy brisk walks through its vast public spaces.
Sometimes I am not hundred percent sure what precisely Singapore is, but I always know what it isn’t – it never succumbed to that brutal, heartless, primitive and uneducated turbo capitalism of other Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
It educates, heals, and houses its citizens, and it gives them time, space, health, culture and perhaps the best public transportation on Earth, so in summary, they can enjoy some of the highest quality of life on Earth.
It does not rob its own people.
Is it ‘enough’? I am not sure. But it is a lot, more than almost anywhere else on our planet Earth.
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What makes one country truly “revolutionary”, “socialist” or even “Communist”?
Is it its ideology, its banners and fiery anti-imperialist speeches; is it that country’s political and internationalist stand?
Or is it the quality of life enjoyed by its people; the way their country treats them: their health, education, housing, quality of air, public spaces, public transportation and cultural life?
I am convinced that it is both.Social and economic success without ideology and fighting spirit, leads to emptiness and in the end, to destructive consumerism.
Ideology without high quality of life helps Western propagandists to trigger subversion.
But where does Singapore stand, if measured by these scales?
It has some of the highest Human Development Indexes on Earth (HDI of UNDP), the highest in Asia, 5th in the world in 2017, and perhaps it would get the prime and become the number one on Earth, if non-Western criteria were to be applied.
The students of Singapore are scoring the best in the world in several fields and appear to be more creative than the Westerners. Most of the education facilities are free, and so is health, covered by efficient national insurance schemes. Public transportation is some of the best (if not the best) in the world, and heavily subsidized by the state. The arts in Singapore are flourishing – the country is impressively cosmopolitan, ecological, promoting ‘Asian values’, and attracting some of the greatest thinkers, artists and performers from China, India, Malaysia and the West.
Its libraries and archives are also some of the best in the world, and totally free, even for foreigners.
Since the independence, the Singaporean government forced people to leave their backward kampungs (villages) – many of them consisted of malaria-infested dwellings in the middle of swamps. In exchange, families were given flats in concrete buildings: with clean running water, electricity, top notch sanitation system, but also with playgrounds, parks, sports facilities, and public transportation.
All this was not unlike the urban design created in the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Korea (both North and South) or Cuba.
Concert stage at Singapore Botanical Gardens
From the very beginning, Singapore relied on the so-called ‘mixed economy’ – on a strong, powerful, incorruptible socially driven state/government, and paralleled by a thriving private sector, which, however, was forced to put the interests of the country well above its profits.
Singapore also counts on one of the fairest legal systems on Earth, but also one of the toughest, with the death penalty often used for drug trafficking, and for extreme and violent crimes.
It is clearly based on the‘Asian model’: the minority is expected to yield to the interests of the majority.
Contrary to that, in the West, the rights of the ‘minorities’ are pedantically protected, but often against the interests of the majority. The Western system clearly evolved from the ideas of protecting small and extreme rich groups of people (‘minorities’) against the masses of the poor (majority). On these foundations was also constructed the global imperialist system, through which the West has been brutalizing, plundering and ‘ruling’ the world for several centuries.
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Based on various surveys, the Singaporeans are the “happiest people on the Asian continent”. No wonder: the country has some of the lowest crime rates in the world, perhaps the best and the most generous ‘social net’ of any officially capitalist country on the planet, tremendous opportunities for its citizens, and an exciting, cosmopolitan lifestyle.
There are no homeless people on its 68 islands and islets; one can walk safely basically anywhere, even in the middle of the night. Enormous public parks are everywhere, hugging the coast, and the river. The Botanic Gardens of Singapore are so stunning, that UNESCO inscribed them as a world heritage site.
For Singaporeans and the residents of the country, almost all cultural events, as well as educational facilities and spots, come free of charge.
Housing is heavily subsidized, especially for families that are buying their first (and mostly only) home. The great majority of Singaporeans live in huge but very well constructed apartment blocks, not unlike those that were erected in such Communist countries like the Soviet Union or former Czechoslovakia.
Rich foreigners (so-called ‘expats’) enjoy no such privileges: they pay through their ears and noses, sometimes twice, sometimes four or even five times more than the locals. Singapore is often voted as the most expensive city in Asia, up there with Tokyo and Hong Kong. But that is for the corporate types – for foreigners who would do just about anything in their power to be based in Singapore, instead of being based in totally collapsed, polluted and unlivable regional capitals like Jakarta or Manila. That ‘anything’ includes almost daily ‘commutes’ on one of the best airlines in the world (of course, the legendary Singapore Airlines) between Singapore and Jakarta.
For the Singaporeans, their country is perhaps one of the cheapest in the so-called ‘first world’.
If this is not a kind of socialism, one has to wonder, what really is.
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Unlike the West, Singapore does not plunder. It is tremendously rich, because its people are very hardworking (most of them are Chinese and share with China both work ethic and honesty). Singaporeans are also extremely well educated, by some standards the best educated in the world.
Several years ago, Singapore evolved from a manufacturing center, into a research and science hub, as well as the regional transportation hub with Changi –repeatedly voted as the best airport in the world(never leaving the top 5). Its hi-tech port is used by the entire region.
children studying art at Singapore National Art Gallery
Singapore is also renowned for its schools, which are mainly free for the locals, but not cheap at all for the foreigners, although they give generous scholarships for talented students from the region. The same can be said about its hospitals and the medical centers, which attract patients from the regional countries with collapsed, capitalist and monstrously overpriced medical systems (U.S.-style, but with some ten times lower incomes), like Indonesia and the Philippines.
Then the government decided to turn Singapore into a world-class city for the arts.
National Museum entrance
It was a great success. Its museums are second to none in the Southeast Asia, and some of the best on the continent. Art schools, cosmopolitan and subsidized concert halls, the creative fusion of arts and education – all this is on par with Beijing, while putting even such cities like Hong Kong to shame.
Just take a walk at night, and admire traditional Chinese statues exhibited freely along the river, as well as masterpieces by Salvador Dali or Botero, a Columbian sculptor and painter, originally known for his corpulent women, but also the one who, several years ago, created the powerful exhibition depicting the U.S. torture chambers at the notorious Abu Ghraib. It is all here, in Singapore, for everyone to admire. It is free for the Singaporeans. While Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia or the Philippines cannot come up even with one decent National Museum, or a world-class public concert hall (Kuala Lumpur has one, but it belongs to the Malaysian oil company “Petronas”).
Red Dot performs at Esplanade Theatres
The arts in Singapore are not just influenced by the West, although such great performers like the Argentinean concert pianist Martha Argerich, are now household names here. Singapore is obsessed with Chinese Opera, Russian Ballet, as well as the classical music coming from all corners of India.
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Many Westerners strongly dislike Singapore. Some of them never set their foot here (although they have no problems living in such centers of Western imperialism, like New York, Paris or London).
Mainly, it is a complex of inferiority that is haunting them. They feel poor here, and they are simply not permitted to behave like the masters of the universe. Coming here from almost anywhere in Europe or North America, the gap is really big. Singapore is too rich, too clean and elegant, but also too ‘socialist’ – designed to serve the people who call it home.
It is evidently a Chinese city, with an international flair, and the West ‘does not like China’.
Most of the Westerners ‘like poor Asian countries’, where uneducated women in their teens are ready to fall, out of desperation, around the neck of even the most brutal and uneducated Western males. They like to feel superior, in control, and rich. As long as their 100 dollars bills go far, very far, they are willing to overlook the terrible desperation of the Western neo-colonies, to breath polluted air, to eat terrible food and live in the mega-cities with almost no greenery, no beauty and no culture (culture all over Southeast Asia, but particularly in Indonesia, was ruined, massacred, by Western pop-culture and implanted radical forms of religion).
In Singapore, religions play very little role. Singaporean women are in control – educated and confident. They don’t need balding sugar daddies and their potbellies. Westerners are no gods here – they are treated very politely (as everyone here is) – but not extraordinarily.
Singapore is proud. It believes in ‘Asian values’. It does not need to be lectured by the Europeans with their collapsing infrastructure, social systems, and unwavering desire to plunder and control the world.
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But Singapore can also be tough. It has to be.
In the past, it had already been attacked by Indonesia, antagonized by Malaysia and of course, colonized by the West.
Not everything here is so orderly as it appears, and the law often closes eyes, at least half-way. Not when it comes to crime committed by the locals, or when the common disputes are concerned, but when the foreigners bring in their ‘dirty money’. Singapore, as well as Hong Kong and the West, allows hundreds and some say even thousands of Indonesian and other Southeast Asian unsavory ‘businessmen’ and corrupt government officials, to wash their money here, to buy top end real estate or to send their offspring to the local schools and universities. The deal is clear: you can come and buy your condominiums, but you lay low, behave properly, and leave your wild feudalist gangster habits back in Jakarta or Manila.
The other issue, for which Singapore is often criticized by the Left, is its defense contracts with, and some even say military reliance on, Israel.
This question is, however, much more complex than how it appears on the surface. Singapore does not share any ideology or political positions with Israel, and it absolutely does not endorse apartheid. Of course, it is not a ‘perfect country’, but with time it has become, by all measures, one of the best functioning multi-cultural societies on Earth, definitely much more egalitarian than the Western countries. Minorities here are not just being ‘tolerated’ – they are directly influencing and shaping the nation.
Singapore sees Israel as a geographically small and extremely rich country, surrounded by the ‘enemies’. It does not analyze ‘why’ – it just wants to pragmatically learn and improve its own survival skills. Singaporean tough military conscription system is shaped on the Israeli model; both young men and women are called to armed force service, and then again, on several occasions in their life, for military exercises and training.
The ‘thread’ is usually never defined, at least openly. But it is clear that it is both Indonesia and Malaysia; two countries with much greater and much poorer populations, with Wahhabi Sunni Muslim majorities which are increasingly militant and fanatically pro-capitalist and anti-socialist.
Both Indonesia and Malaysia have already managed to thoroughly ruin their environments, as well as their economies, (especially in Indonesia); they are ‘growing’ only thanks to a thorough plunder of the natural resources. Confusion, undefined anger and frustration are never channeled into the revolutionary strives by the left-wing politics, as they are, for instance in Latin America, but also in the Philippines and often in India. Both thee neighboring countries of Singapore have been thoroughly brainwashed by the Western anti-left-wing propaganda.
Singapore, with no doubt the cleanest and ecologically-oriented society, is regularly covered by a deadly haze coming from the burning tropical forests of the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan (Borneo).
While Malaysia and Singapore are already locked in a dangerous dispute over fresh water supply.
Desperate, exasperated the Indonesian poor are crossing into Singapore in search of manual jobs. Singapore, unlike the EU and North America or Japan, has an ‘open door policy’. Almost everyone can come and visit, mostly visa-free. Many people are even allowed to settle and work here, enjoying almost the same rights and privileges as the Singaporean citizens (roughly 30% of people living in Singapore are foreigners, a much greater percentage than in the U.S. or the U.K.). But everything has to be done ‘legally’ here, and things are monitored closely.
Nowhere else on Earth does exist such a tremendous contrast between the affluence and social egalitarianism, and the misery accompanied by unequal distribution of wealth, as between Singapore and Indonesia. It is enough to take a high-speed ferry between Singapore and the Indonesian island of Batam, to understand. The two places are separated by only 20 kilometers of water, but they might have been on two different planets, or in heaven and hell.
Therefore, Singapore is scared.
In Indonesia, social frustration and anger always leads to racist outbreaks. Three genocides (1965, East Timor and the ongoing one in Papua) have always had a racist, as well as fascist and extreme religious undertone. When Suharto (an anti-communist and pro-Western fascist and bigoted dictator) was stepping down from power, it was Indonesian Chinese women who were dragged from their cars and gang-raped, right in front of grinning police officers. In Indonesian history, there have been countless anti-Chinese pogroms, some organized by the Dutch, some by the Indonesians themselves.
And Singapore is predominantly a Chinese country.
And it is not just‘genetic’. The culture of Singapore is Chinese, the work ethic, the way of life, are too. Its secularism is Chinese (while in both Indonesia and Malaysia religiousness is compulsory, and atheism de facto illegal), and so is its obsession with knowledge and education. Building the nation, constructive patriotism – all that is Chinese.
China (PRC) is the closest trade partner of Singapore, but also, the two countries are now extremely close allies.
But again, all this is hardly ever discussed. These issues are clearly taboo, but why?
Singapore knows where it stands, and where it is located. Southeast Asia has been a killing field for the West. Whenever any country decided to go Communist or socialist, it was smashed, bombed back to the stone ages. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia lost millions of inhabitants, just because they decided to kick out Western colonialists and embark on the Communist path. Indonesia lost between 1 and 3 million people because the West wanted its natural resources, but also because in 1966 (one year after the 1965 coup), the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) was poised to win elections, democratically and clearly. East Timor lost 30% of its citizens because its leading political force – FRETILIN – was built on Marxist ideology. And Thailand’s massacres of its own left, as well as collaboration with the West against anything even remotely progressive in the region, has got the country permanently stuck between the third and the first world, with hardly any progress.
Singapore is a very small country. It is not a heroic nation, like Russia, Cuba or Syria. It only wants to work and play hard, and for its people to live well and in peace.
It knows perfectly well, that if it makes one ‘wrong’ statement or one ‘wrong’ move, it could be smashed to pieces, no matter how well trained and equipped its NAVY and air force are, no matter how healthy and prepared its people are.
It is willing to compromise, to pay, and even to bend its beliefs, if necessary. It is resigned to be silent about the collapse of Indonesia, and about the insanity of the Malaysian politics. All that, but only to a certain extent.
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Rooftop of the National Museum
It is an extremely interesting, even fascinating place; a country where the government destroyed Communists, only to build a crypto-Communist state, using the ‘market economy’. It is pure madness, but it works, and it works extremely well.
It is loved by some, while despised by others (although many who hate it do so out of ignorance, envy or misunderstanding).
Most of Singaporeans love their country – it is, after all, their home, for which they fought, which they built shedding sweat, tightening belts, sacrificing lives.
Whatever Westerners say, almost all Southeast Asians either love or at least envy Singapore. Vietnamese government people as well as their city planners go there to study, trying to understand how to build great cities “for the people”, not “against them” like in Indonesia or the Philippines.
And the main criticism or ‘outrage’ of the Western backed NGO’s? Well, just ask people in Manila, Jakarta or in Hanoi, if they’d mind if the individuals who are ruining what is left of nature in their cities would get few cane hits over their buttocks, or if the corrupt business people and government officials would have to, once in a while, face a firing squad for robbing poor people.
I am not passing my judgment here, I am only saying: “Ask the people.” That’s how democracy should function, no? By consulting the local citizens, not the Western ‘advisers’ and Western-paid ‘civil society’.
Naturally, some Singaporeans do not like their country. But if they don’t, they are free to go. The Singaporean passport is one of the most powerful on Earth. When they leave, they are extremely well educated, healthy, self-sufficient, and speak at least two languages. They are respected. Both men and women are.
I call Singapore a “crypto-Communist country”. But I don’t say it loudly;neither do I do it too often, in order not to provoke the beast in the West, and its lackeys in Southeast Asia.
Yes, ideologically and rhetorically, Singapore “betrayed the left”. Practically, however, it built a socialist, or call it a ‘utopian Communist paradise’ for its people. During the process, it got greatly influenced by China, while influencing China in return.
To look obedient, it participated in a couple of Western military adventures. It never openly snapped at a rotting, corrupt and collapsing giant next door – Indonesia. It knows better. Whenever disasters strike and Indonesia is in agony, Singapore sends, discreetly, its doctors, rescue teams, even military, to help. But it never openly criticizes. And it never hears any ‘thanks’.
It is clear that the Singaporean leaders have been reading and studyingthe great Chinese classic – “Art of War”.
And it is obvious that the Singaporean people, ‘citizens of the happiest country in Asia’, will never allow their model to be abandoned. The dreadful scenarios which the West injected into Southeast Asia, and which it has been shamelessly glorifying as ‘tolerant’ and ‘democratic’, are just too close and too visible to be overlooked. They keep haunting, only few miles away, playing like a brutal horror film, over and over again.
New public park
Singapore is a plush oasis in a dry and hostile desert of region’s social collapse. It is surrounded from all sides. It looks soft, sometimes too soft, but in reality, it is tough. Therefore, it will not surrender; it will be defending its people and its “Asian values”, and it will, most likely, in the end, “bring Southeast Asia back to Asia”, instead of succumbing to bizarre Western colonialist models that are robbing and raping the local people and entire nations.
