“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

Singapore is one of the places I have followed in the press over the years. Business and societal changes seem to happen just a little bit before they reaches the rest of the world. It is one of my methods of guessing what the future may bring and pre-planning some options.

Singapore 1965 to 2020 (16.27 min)
[video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSKLrGJyELE]

Singapore Travel documentary from 1938 (11.20 min)
"Here on this tropical island which was once but an impenetrable jungle along the coast which ships of the past sailed with temerity England has built a great city and established for the trade of all nations a mighty guardian in the East."
[video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvvhY6DtfZs]

Primarily a verbal presentation at a fast pace.
[video:https://youtu.be/SnPDJlHF1lc?t=22]

(0.21- 8.34) history up to 1937
ad for Square
(10.06- 19.43) 1937 to 1965
(19.44-24.49) 1966 to present

Singapore street food added to Unesco heritage list

One of Singapore’s most-loved institutions has been given a timely boost, with the country’s hawker culture being added to the Unesco list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
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The food halls are considered the nation’s dining rooms, where people from all walks of life mingle and eat cheap, freshly cooked dishes from morning to night. Hawkers sell many things, from whole roasted ducks and steamed pork buns to pig’s trotters and fish-head curry. As Anthony Bourdain wrote during his 2017 visit: “The hawker centers are wonderlands of Chinese, Indian, and Malay specialties [sic]. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel making food porn in Singapore.”

Singapore's hawker culture: How did it all start? (48 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olFF85IYv0o]

A mockery of democracy in Singapore (2017)

The island state's recent presidential poll was baldly engineered in the ruling People's Action Party's favor and stirred the race-based politics it had long bid to suppress

-Halimah Yacob became the country’s first female head of state following sweeping constitutional changes made to ensure that an ethnic minority Malay would become the city-state’s eighth president.

Halimah’s rise to the largely ceremonial post was ushered by an uncontested poll that resulted in a walkover when a government-appointed committee disqualified two other candidates after they failed to meet newly enacted financial criteria required for eligibility.
...
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, his deputies and other top PAP ministers have stridently defended the constitutional changes as a way to ensure racial harmony and strengthen Singapore’s multiracial political system.

“People think we may be going backwards, towards racial politics. But actually the reality is the opposite,” said the premier while acknowledging that the one-candidate election was unpopular and costly to the PAP’s reputation.

'Chilling': Singapore's 'fake news’ law comes into effect (Oct 2019)

Singapore’s new law to combat “fake news” has come into effect despite criticism from tech giants and activists, who labelled the tough rules a “chilling” attempt to stifle dissent.

The law gives government ministers powers to order social media sites to put warnings next to posts authorities deem to be false, and in extreme cases get them taken down.

Facebook, Twitter and Google – who have their Asian headquarters in Singapore – were given temporary exemptions from a handful of provisions in the act to give them time to adapt.

Unlawful assembly of one in Singapore (March 2021)

Police in Singapore are investigating whether a ruling party lawmaker broke a strict law barring virtually all forms of protest when he held up a placard encouraging support for local food businesses, a case that has sparked debate over the proportionality of the city-state’s broadly-defined public order legislation.

Louis Ng, a member of the People’s Action Party (PAP), posted four pictures on Facebook last June of himself with hawkers at a food center in his constituency. He held up a piece of paper that read “support them” alongside a smiley face. That act alone could be deemed an offense if found by courts to constitute an illegal public assembly.
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Shanmugam, one of Singapore’s top litigators and the public face upholding its strictest laws, argued for the bill’s tighter provisions at the time by saying the government’s focus should be on acts of assembly and not on the number of people involved.

Amendments to the law barring foreign nationals from assemblies entered force in 2017. Last March, Shanmugam cited protest-related unrest in Hong Kong throughout 2019 to suggest that Singapore’s approach to public order is justified and fair. “The actions of a disaffected few should not be allowed to threaten the rights of the majority to live in a stable, peaceful society,” he was reported as saying.

Singapore curbs meddling but not everyone’s happy (Oct 2021)

Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act, or FICA, could negatively impact perceptions of Singapore as a global hub.
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Singapore’s powerful Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said in his parliamentary speech that FICA is part of a “comprehensive strategy to deal with foreign interference,” calling it a “calibrated piece of legislation to allow us to act surgically against threats” while describing the internet as a “powerful new medium for subversion.”

The law gives Singapore’s government sweeping powers over internet content and allows for authorities to force social media platforms and internet service providers to hand over user data, remove applications from app stores, and block access to online content that is deemed as being part of a hostile information campaign.

FICA allows the country’s home minister to order investigations into an individual or organization if foreign interference is suspected, provided that such directives serve “the public interest” by preventing activities that could result in “a diminution of public confidence” in the government or are “directed towards a political end.”

The legislation also enables the home affairs ministry to publicly designate individuals or organizations as “politically significant persons” if they are assessed to be at risk of becoming potential targets of foreign influence, and thereby made to abide by strict rules pertaining to political donations and declaration of their links to foreign entities.

Harris tries to assure Southeast Asia of US support (Aug 2021)

Now, Washington hopes that Vice President Kamala Harris’ seven-day trip to Singapore and Vietnam this week will influence perceptions of America’s resolve and commitment following the administration’s slow start in engaging the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its members’ leaders.
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Harris fielded questions about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan during a joint press conference in Singapore with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was asked by a reporter about whether his “calculus” had changed about relying on Washington as a partner in the region as a result of the chaotic evacuation efforts.

Lee replied by saying that countries in Southeast Asia would pay close attention to how the US repositions itself and engages partners and allies in the region while keeping up efforts to fight terrorism, and offered the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s multi-role tanker transport aircraft to help assist in the evacuation of Afghan refugees.

The US and Singapore concluded a range of agreements on cybersecurity, climate, epidemic intelligence sharing, and economic cooperation during Harris’ visit. The vice president also took part in a supply chain resilience dialogue with private sector leaders that touched on issues such as production delays stemming from the ongoing global chip shortage.

Apple quietly files patents for new unannounced product

Apple has filed multiple patents which describe a method of connecting small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to various wireless controllers – and has seemingly tried to keep its research project a secret.

The US Patent and Trademark Office published two patent applications from the Silicon Valley company on Thursday.
Read more
Apple makes sure you don’t take iCloud data to the grave Apple makes sure you don’t take iCloud data to the grave

In an apparent bid to keep the project secret, Apple initially filed its patents in Singapore, according to Patently Apple, a blog that tracks the firm’s IPs. One of the patents is titled ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Tracking and Control’ and was filed in Singapore in March 2020.

Now a look at possible high tech life in cities. Smart housing, food stability, water sustainability, finance, medicine, energy, tech education and enviormentalisn.

City of the Future: Singapore – Full Episode | National Geographic (44 min) 2018
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi6r3hZe5Tg]

Why Singapore is rich and will remain rich (July 2021)
A combination of geography, government efficiency, and business friendliness has made Singapore a success story

What is on your mind today? (Responses to Covid questions and dialog to be conducted at The Dose diary)