I think the most interesting aspect of Singapore's government is they pay government officials multimillion dollar salaries. This makes them very hard to bribe. If you think about the size of the budgets government officials have authority over compared to their salaries, the temptation to be bribed and thus be dominated by corporate interests is overwhelming. In Singapore the incentives are reversed. Any allegation of corruption risks a lost job. In other countries they would get fired and go to work at the companies that bribed them but in Singapore the private companies will have difficulty competing with their government salary, not to mention the prestige that comes with being a government official.<p>I would be in support of that being tried in the U.S, especially for senior level positions. It would probably save money in the long run.
Update: Disneyland With the Death Penalty, Revisited, 2012
<a href="http://www.wired.com/2012/04/opinion-jeyaretnam-disneyland-death-penalty/all/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/2012/04/opinion-jeyaretnam-disneyland-d...</a>
Having grown up in Singapore for 3 years (first through third grade) I for one was completely in love with the place. This was in the late 70s, however, and some of the "dirt" still existed at that time. In fact, our flat (a 20-story apartment building) was right next to a "kampung", which was a shanty tin-roof village with chickens running this way and that, inhabited by very poor native people. Their sole means of income, from what I remember, was by pulling magnets out of TVs and radios and selling the magnets... to whom I have no idea.<p>It's my understanding that none of those kampungs exist in Singapore any longer, and I've often wondered where all of the people were sent.
There are a lot of valid concerns with regards to Singapore's excessive central planning, governmental and social disapproval of nonconformity, etc. But this piece really does sound like the perspective of a disappointed poverty tourist. There is a huge difference between visiting filth and slums and red-light districts and desperate people struggling to get by, and having to live there all your life.<p>Singapore did a lot of things wrong, but part of the reason it is so (unnervingly) clean and prosperous and ordered is because the government has made an effort (not completely successful, and again perhaps with not all the right methods) to provide the denizens of the country with places to live and ways to make a decent living.
If you liked this, then you will probably like this one too (56 pages, so it'll take you a while):<p><a href="http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html" rel="nofollow">http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html</a><p>It's about the laying of an undersea fibre optic cable.
Wow. I remember reading this in print when it was first published. I had just gotten a dial up internet connection at home. 28.8 kb/s!!!! Now I'm typing this on my phone. All lot has changed in 22 years.
Re-reading this article makes me think of a scifi short story that I read a while back that I can't remember the name of.<p>I thought it was by Bruce Sterling but apparently not. About a guy who went to (Dubai?) to reprogram some "ancient" assembly-line robots, and had trouble because access to the "net" was highly controlled, and he needed to get documentation. He hacked into a payphone, only to find that there was a lively "underground" scene on the net, and some of the royalty he had encountered was active on it.<p>Surely someone can remember the name/author..
It seems that it won't be news for anybody here, but it was for me as I never heard of this article and didn't know who this Gibson guy is as well (I don't like science fiction), but the article appears to be so influential that there even is wikipedia article about that with quite interesting details: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_with_the_Death_Penalty" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_with_the_Death_Penal...</a><p>I wonder how relevant all that stuff is today.
The fun thing is how you can "date" this great essay to pre-2000 since it includes ";-)" instead of the more modern ";)", has anyone ever looked at the development of the use of emoticons over time?
This is an excellent read! It is also included in Gibson's collection of non fiction writing - Distrust That Particular Flavor, which I highly recommend.
This is so in line with French philosopher Baudrillard and his discourse on hyperreality. Baudrillard also mentions Disneyland in his work (can't recall in which one). Many of his ideas are tightly related to the Matrix saga and, to some extent, Neuromancer.