Singapore: An inspiration for a different world
I had the opportunity to visit Singapore briefly for two days, hosted by my friend (more a brother), Raghuram Reddiam and his wife,Malavika. Singapore (while an island city-state), is reasonably small, both in size and population, in comparison to my own city, Hyderabad. I was constantly struck by the great strides that could be made by a strong and determined people - if they can do it, why not us? But the comparison stops there. In infrastructure, public housing, power, roads, health, education, standard of living, public transport, gardens, ecology and in every other conceivable metric, Singapore is a first world country today, which bears no resemblance to Hyderabad. How did Singapore, formed barely 50 years ago, grow from a GDP(PPP) per capita of $516/year to $87,555, the third highest in the world? In 1965, it was literally expelled from the Malaysian union by the PM, Tungku Abdul Rehman, as the only way of saving communal violence from happening. ...