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For many years I thought our cities are similar, only to realise now that you do have a much more rough start than us.
Hong Kong had 3 very significant advantages: there was never any need to maintain any military and there was never any need to maintain foreign affairs, and lastly, racism by colonial government was no longer acceptable after the 1960s.
The amount of money Singapore spent on buying tanks, top-of-the-line fighter planes, destroyers/frigates, submarines, and from 2 years of universal conscription for all males, such as myself, made Singapore developed a lot slower than Hong Kong.
During the 1960s, politicians and military leaders in Malaysia and Indonesia were openly talking about annexing Singapore by military force. During 1975, Saigon fell to North Vietnam and there were real fears that the Vietnamese would invade their way across Thailand, Malaysia and march their way down to Singapore - not because the Vietnamese were that strong but because the US had completely fled from the Indo-China region.
Hong Kong also had a very significant advantage in that after China fell, many tycoons and industrialists, especially from Shanghai, moved their business to Hong Kong. Notice how most of the famous Chinese tycoons are from Hong Kong? Singapore also has its own home-grown tycoons, but in fewer numbers and are less wealthier. That is because Singapore's economic development was very different - it embarked on economic ultra-liberalization via agressively courting foreign MNCs. So instead of entrepreneurial individuals transforming into tycoons and creating family business empires, much of the progress in Singapore was driven by FDI by MNCs, especially Western and Japanese MNCs.
Another reason for Hong Kong's drastic improvement in taking care of non-white people was the appointment of Murray MacLehose as governor in 1971; he was transferred directly from the Foreign Service, instead of another insider from the Colonial Service (the Colonial Service regarded non-whites very poorly).
During his time as governor from 1971 to 1982, unlike his predecessors, he took a very pro-active approach in helping the common people. Behaving very differently from the vast majority of British colonial administrators, he made sweeping improvements to Hong Kong's public healthcare, public education and worked hard on improving public housing. His successors, after 1982 till today were never as competent - or as caring for the common people.
Really? I had no idea. I thought everybody was in equally terrible state back then, then several(well, 4) places bounced up and left all those losers behind lol.
Well tap water and domestic electricity was already made common even for local across the harbour in Hong Kong in early 20th century. I have read some source suggesting by 1902 Taiwan already had two cities (Taipei and Keelung) with running water supply and Taipai had electricity from hydro-dam from 1905 (available but unaffordable to public until the complete of the Zintun Dam in 1934).
If it's true that Singapore didn't has tap water and electricity for the majority population by 1950s, then it's actually really poor condition.
Well tap water and domestic electricity was already made common even for local across the harbour in Hong Kong in early 20th century. I have read some source suggesting by 1902 Taiwan already had two cities (Taipei and Keelung) with running water supply and Taipai had electricity from hydro-dam from 1905 (available but unaffordable to public until the complete of the Zintun Dam in 1934).
If it's true that Singapore didn't has tap water and electricity for the majority population by 1950s, then it's actually really poor condition.
If you look at the main picture, those wooden houses on stilts? That was how most people lived; the entire village had no electricity at all; my father grew up in a place like that; every morning, he had to take a pail to the village well and draw water into the pail. Today, my father has an iPhone and a facebook account.
You see the small little hut at the center of the photo? that looked like it would fit only 1 person, away from the other huts, connected to a hut only by a wooden plank?; that is where you go if you have a stomach ache. No one would clear the human s***. No running water; it just goes straight to the ground.
This photo is interesting, it was taken in 1968; if you look at the top right corner, you would see a row of apartment flats being built; those were the very first generation of public housing in Singapore being built, with electricity, and tap water. The government decided that everybody would move into these first batch of public housing flats where the living is more hygienic.
Well tap water and domestic electricity was already made common even for local across the harbour in Hong Kong in early 20th century. I have read some source suggesting by 1902 Taiwan already had two cities (Taipei and Keelung) with running water supply and Taipai had electricity from hydro-dam from 1905 (available but unaffordable to public until the complete of the Zintun Dam in 1934).
If it's true that Singapore didn't has tap water and electricity for the majority population by 1950s, then it's actually really poor condition.
Oddly enough, even with its recent economic growth, many in the west don't consider Singapore one of the Asian Tiger economies. That is weird to me as I always thought Singapore was pretty advanced technologically as so much of it was relatively recently built up.
If you look at the main picture, those wooden houses on stilts? That was how most people lived; the entire village had no electricity at all; my father grew up in a place like that; every morning, he had to take a pail to the village well and draw water into the pail. Today, my father has an iPhone and a facebook account.
You see the small little hut at the center of the photo? that looked like it would fit only 1 person, away from the other huts, connected to a hut only by a wooden plank?; that is where you go if you have a stomach ache. No one would clear the human s***. No running water; it just goes straight to the ground.
This photo is interesting, it was taken in 1968; if you look at the top right corner, you would see a row of apartment flats being built; those were the very first generation of public housing in Singapore being built, with electricity, and tap water. The government decided that everybody would move into these first batch of public housing flats where the living is more hygienic.
Second thought we did (and to some degree do) have those sort of thing like this photo.
Some had supply of water and electricity but many didn't. And they caught on fire as easily as wood (as shown by the Shek Kip Mei fire of 1953).
By the comment I replied in the first post I had the false illusion that water and energy was politically kept as privilege in Singapore but now I think it's more of a slum issue like in HK.
obviously it is different to the technology economy of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Israel.
GDP growth was high after the casinos opened in Singapore, a similar phenomenon in Macau previously.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreyFox
Oddly enough, even with its recent economic growth, many in the west don't consider Singapore one of the Asian Tiger economies. That is weird to me as I always thought Singapore was pretty advanced technologically as so much of it was relatively recently built up.
Ultimately the British Empire Cities are now some of the wealthiest in the world, though the wealth has now spread to non-Anglo people. Bangalore, Hong Kong, singapore, Sydney, George Town, Cayman Islands.London, New York, Auckland, etc.
I'm sure being a colonial super power and stealing 1/2 of the World's money had nothing to do with that
What always amazes me is how some younger Singaporeans are so nostalgic about the 1960's and even further back. They see pictures of the old Kampongs and see some kind of idyllic lifestyle in a rural setting that seems so appealing in contrast to the concrete and high rise environment they now live in.
I can recall these old Kampongs and the community wells, outdoor toilets and kerosene lamps. My friend back in the 60's lived on Pulau Brani basically in a shack with a tin roof. Her father ran the power plant there for the British navy. The British themselves had well appointed housing complete with amahs hired from the local population.
The Rule of Law coupled with an extremely strong work ethic and emphasis on education.
That's the "secret formula" for almost every successful society. Unfortunately it's very hard to replicate.
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