About the whole free speech thing—it’s interesting your girlfriend would say that. I was researching and just wrote about how in the French Revolution King Louis XVI enacted free speech laws that brought the number of news publications and periodicals up from about half a dozen to over 1,300 during the course of the revolution. People were both free to say what they wanted but also had an over abundance of information and didn’t necessarily practice the best or most ethical judgement when publishing their papers. Free speech is great, but on the flip side of that coin, chaos can ensue.
I also think it’s interesting that you picked up on the importance of family structures in poorer countries. The breakdown of the family in the US is probably the biggest tragedy of the last century, and the impact will be felt for a long time.
Very interesting! I have been thinking of visiting that area, this definitely makes me more interested in doing so.
I have also heard that Lee Kuan Yew has an excellent biography. I'll have to check it out, he sounds quite wise.
I really dislike the sentiment of 'I wish there were more people like me', meaning people who look like me. It's so shallow. I'm not supposed to say that obviously as a white guy, supposedly i'm blessed to be around people who look like me. Which was the case in my white hometown, although once you go to college and a bigger city it isn't the case nearly so much. And it doesn't make a difference, for the most part the worst people i've known in my life have been white. You might expect that since i've been around so many white people. But my feeling has always been that it just matters how you act and carry yourself. Here in the west it seems like we have an elite class intent on making it all about shallow things like skin color, and not allowing us to move past that. They'd say that isn't possible. A depressing mindset. Why would you want multiculturalism if you don't think people can't move past something like that. But I digress.
Very cool. I love this style... it is a journal of observations that are very interesting and paint a very good picture of the culture and differences of these two places.
The point about free speech vs rules to prevent speech disparaging other cultures. And related to that the cultural division in Malaysia but the seemingly national cohesion vs the cultural drift to sameness in Singapore and the strong national cohesion... this was very interesting to me.
I have always had the opinion that what held the US together was a special ethos of the Great Experiment that was the ONLY way diverse cultures could maintain national cohesion. Time to rethink my thinking on this.
"Reminds me of how little political power the tech sector in the U.S. has, relative to its material wealth. More generally, it leads me to wonder just how much money actually matters when it comes to political power."
I think I know the answer to this. There are people wired and trained to seek their fortune in private enterprise... where it is dog-eat-dog competitive and no safety nets nor job security except if you figure out how to perform and make stuff happen. That leaves little time for politics. Then there is a cohort of people that for what ever reason are not quite up to capability to compete in that private space, but are still ambitious for status, power and a greater income than the working stiff makes. These people more often seek government employment and position.
We see the same in the US. Call them the professional political class. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are not the stuff of the big tech entrepreneurs and the forward thinking professionals... but they follow a path that can put them high in social status and wealth. So, the Malay Chinese are trained and wired as private sector entrepreneurs and the Malay Muslims are less so, and thus more likely to pursue a career path as a politician and bureaucrat. It makes sense. In my town I am often hit up by people I know to run for city council or mayor, but I am way too busy running two successful small businesses. The current city council members and the mayor are frankly not very smart and are only in their jobs to advance their pay and collect their pensions. A few are more ambitious and are planing moves to county, state and maybe national politics. But none of them are capable of making a good living in the private sector.
I see this a a bit of a problem as democracy should be representative of the people and if dominated by a specific cohort, it will miss many things and make many mistakes in support of the whole. I don't know what the solution is other than term limits, campaign finance reform, and public funding of campaigns. This will maybe convince some of the professional business class to take 4 years to serve and make a difference, without having to put so much time into campaign fund raising and promise making that ends up a waste of time without the ability for independent action.
I really enjoyed this piece. I'm half-Vietnamese, half-American, and have always taken the identity of the latter. But as I grew older, interactions with my mother's extended family left me curious enough to major in Asian Studies. I recognize some of the customs here, especially about respect to the elderly. Singapore is now on my travel list.
A great read - thank you for sharing. I learned a lot. Some of your observations bring to mind Thomas Sowell's essay "Are Jews Generic?" in the book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" (softcover 2006). Her refers to the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia and other places as middle-man minorities, with similar observable patterns of work ethic, family stability, educational priorities across cultures of middleman minorities (Igbos, Lebanese)--and none of that translating to political power.
Still working out my thoughts on the freedom of speech ideas...
One thing I learn from this is it’s bad manners in the west to eat from knife so thanks for that
Is good to see a westerner accurately describe the reality on the ground here
Having said that Singapore also like many places faces issues of income inequality
Our Gini index is high
But the past 10 years the PAP Govt has worked harder on it to help improve the bottom decile
No doubt motivated by the bad election results they got in 2011
Bad by their standards, they still get 90% of seats and 60% of votes which would have been crushing victory in any other democracies elsewhere
It was so bad Lee Kuan Yew quit the cabinet the very next day along with the 2nd PM
Both by then were ministers but no longer as PM
I grew up thinking LKY was a tad too ruthless and paternalistic but now that I’m above 40 I understand better why
ALL my friends’ kids speak English and bad at their mother tongue
I am really unsure if it’s a good thing or bad thing
It reminds me of how my parents very illiterate people make sure they gave me and my siblings the best chance in life by talking to us in Chinese instead of dialects. Even though they speak to each other in dialects still
Not saying that my friends adopt the same attitude by speaking to their kids in English. Probably it’s more out of convenience when you speak English at work instead.
But I feel at least a good 30-40% chance it’s also due to wanting the kids a head start
Thank you for writing this. It was very informative and interesting.
I enjoy your style very much, simple and effective, very easy to read. I really appreciate your just reporting what you observe without being judgmental.
You write, “In both Malaysia and Singapore, it is illegal to disparage anyone for their ethnicity, culture, or religion. Laws were enacted after the brutality of the race riots in the 1960s.”
But earlier you wrote,
“In Malaysia and Singapore, a common descriptor for white people is "ang mo kow." Directly translated it means "red-haired devil." Sometimes they use the softer term “ang mo kow” which means “red-haired monkey.””
Rob,.... the quotes from Lee Kuan Yew, about the Japanese occupation ..... may I ask which book or website - those quotes came from ?, and if you could maybe post the link(s) , thank you
This was super interesting!
About the whole free speech thing—it’s interesting your girlfriend would say that. I was researching and just wrote about how in the French Revolution King Louis XVI enacted free speech laws that brought the number of news publications and periodicals up from about half a dozen to over 1,300 during the course of the revolution. People were both free to say what they wanted but also had an over abundance of information and didn’t necessarily practice the best or most ethical judgement when publishing their papers. Free speech is great, but on the flip side of that coin, chaos can ensue.
I also think it’s interesting that you picked up on the importance of family structures in poorer countries. The breakdown of the family in the US is probably the biggest tragedy of the last century, and the impact will be felt for a long time.
Very interesting! I have been thinking of visiting that area, this definitely makes me more interested in doing so.
I have also heard that Lee Kuan Yew has an excellent biography. I'll have to check it out, he sounds quite wise.
I really dislike the sentiment of 'I wish there were more people like me', meaning people who look like me. It's so shallow. I'm not supposed to say that obviously as a white guy, supposedly i'm blessed to be around people who look like me. Which was the case in my white hometown, although once you go to college and a bigger city it isn't the case nearly so much. And it doesn't make a difference, for the most part the worst people i've known in my life have been white. You might expect that since i've been around so many white people. But my feeling has always been that it just matters how you act and carry yourself. Here in the west it seems like we have an elite class intent on making it all about shallow things like skin color, and not allowing us to move past that. They'd say that isn't possible. A depressing mindset. Why would you want multiculturalism if you don't think people can't move past something like that. But I digress.
Thanks for the quick and entertaining tutorial on Malaysia/Singapore.
Very cool. I love this style... it is a journal of observations that are very interesting and paint a very good picture of the culture and differences of these two places.
The point about free speech vs rules to prevent speech disparaging other cultures. And related to that the cultural division in Malaysia but the seemingly national cohesion vs the cultural drift to sameness in Singapore and the strong national cohesion... this was very interesting to me.
I have always had the opinion that what held the US together was a special ethos of the Great Experiment that was the ONLY way diverse cultures could maintain national cohesion. Time to rethink my thinking on this.
"Reminds me of how little political power the tech sector in the U.S. has, relative to its material wealth. More generally, it leads me to wonder just how much money actually matters when it comes to political power."
I think I know the answer to this. There are people wired and trained to seek their fortune in private enterprise... where it is dog-eat-dog competitive and no safety nets nor job security except if you figure out how to perform and make stuff happen. That leaves little time for politics. Then there is a cohort of people that for what ever reason are not quite up to capability to compete in that private space, but are still ambitious for status, power and a greater income than the working stiff makes. These people more often seek government employment and position.
We see the same in the US. Call them the professional political class. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are not the stuff of the big tech entrepreneurs and the forward thinking professionals... but they follow a path that can put them high in social status and wealth. So, the Malay Chinese are trained and wired as private sector entrepreneurs and the Malay Muslims are less so, and thus more likely to pursue a career path as a politician and bureaucrat. It makes sense. In my town I am often hit up by people I know to run for city council or mayor, but I am way too busy running two successful small businesses. The current city council members and the mayor are frankly not very smart and are only in their jobs to advance their pay and collect their pensions. A few are more ambitious and are planing moves to county, state and maybe national politics. But none of them are capable of making a good living in the private sector.
I see this a a bit of a problem as democracy should be representative of the people and if dominated by a specific cohort, it will miss many things and make many mistakes in support of the whole. I don't know what the solution is other than term limits, campaign finance reform, and public funding of campaigns. This will maybe convince some of the professional business class to take 4 years to serve and make a difference, without having to put so much time into campaign fund raising and promise making that ends up a waste of time without the ability for independent action.
I really enjoyed this piece. I'm half-Vietnamese, half-American, and have always taken the identity of the latter. But as I grew older, interactions with my mother's extended family left me curious enough to major in Asian Studies. I recognize some of the customs here, especially about respect to the elderly. Singapore is now on my travel list.
A great read - thank you for sharing. I learned a lot. Some of your observations bring to mind Thomas Sowell's essay "Are Jews Generic?" in the book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" (softcover 2006). Her refers to the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia and other places as middle-man minorities, with similar observable patterns of work ethic, family stability, educational priorities across cultures of middleman minorities (Igbos, Lebanese)--and none of that translating to political power.
Still working out my thoughts on the freedom of speech ideas...
Paid sub of yours
singaporean
Have friends in Malaysia
I attest everything written here is accurate
One thing I learn from this is it’s bad manners in the west to eat from knife so thanks for that
Is good to see a westerner accurately describe the reality on the ground here
Having said that Singapore also like many places faces issues of income inequality
Our Gini index is high
But the past 10 years the PAP Govt has worked harder on it to help improve the bottom decile
No doubt motivated by the bad election results they got in 2011
Bad by their standards, they still get 90% of seats and 60% of votes which would have been crushing victory in any other democracies elsewhere
It was so bad Lee Kuan Yew quit the cabinet the very next day along with the 2nd PM
Both by then were ministers but no longer as PM
I grew up thinking LKY was a tad too ruthless and paternalistic but now that I’m above 40 I understand better why
ALL my friends’ kids speak English and bad at their mother tongue
I am really unsure if it’s a good thing or bad thing
It reminds me of how my parents very illiterate people make sure they gave me and my siblings the best chance in life by talking to us in Chinese instead of dialects. Even though they speak to each other in dialects still
Not saying that my friends adopt the same attitude by speaking to their kids in English. Probably it’s more out of convenience when you speak English at work instead.
But I feel at least a good 30-40% chance it’s also due to wanting the kids a head start
Very interesting. You might enjoy reading Dan Senor’s Start Up Nation and its chapters on Singapore.
I'm just glad to read you have a girlfriend! No one ever talks about how guys need support too.
Thanks for the great insights as usual.
Thank you for writing this. It was very informative and interesting.
I enjoy your style very much, simple and effective, very easy to read. I really appreciate your just reporting what you observe without being judgmental.
Fascinating observations! Thanks for sharing.
You write, “In both Malaysia and Singapore, it is illegal to disparage anyone for their ethnicity, culture, or religion. Laws were enacted after the brutality of the race riots in the 1960s.”
But earlier you wrote,
“In Malaysia and Singapore, a common descriptor for white people is "ang mo kow." Directly translated it means "red-haired devil." Sometimes they use the softer term “ang mo kow” which means “red-haired monkey.””
Doesn’t that count as disparagement?
Rob,.... the quotes from Lee Kuan Yew, about the Japanese occupation ..... may I ask which book or website - those quotes came from ?, and if you could maybe post the link(s) , thank you