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Libya’s Gaddafi and Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew

Reading through the section on Gaddafi's ideology on wikipedia, I saw so many comparisons and similarities I could draw to Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew. Let me share with you a few of my thoughts. 1. Gaddafi based his new regime on a blend of Arab nationalism, aspects of the welfare state, and what Gaddafi termed "popular democracy". Lee...

不必解决，是解决贫穷的万灵丹 (The Panacea to Eradicate Poverty is Not to Bother)

对着这则国际新闻《澳媒体：应向新加坡看齐福利制度不能解决贫困》，我心里是感慨万千，时常听人家说：“如鱼饮水、冷暖自知”，我这个新加坡人，看到：（墨尔本讯）《澳大利亚人报》昨天发表的一篇文章指出，与其一味尝试效仿美国和英国的福利制度，澳大利亚应该向新加坡看齐，不要把福利制度当作是解决贫困问题的方法，因为新加坡的成功及美国与英国至今仍在为贫困问题搏斗，说明了福利制度的多重失败。... 人家这般把新加坡赞美，就如哑巴吃黄连，有苦说不出啊！不容否认，福利制度不能解决贫困，这是一般性的通识。然而，没有了福利制度就能够解决贫困了吗？这却是所有的看好新加坡的政治团体从来就不敢面对的事实！新加坡从来就没有解决过贫穷问题，不仅如此，贫富悬殊更加猖獗，基尼系数正在扩大，贫穷人口的基数正在急剧的扩张，在在的都说明了没有福利制度并不能提供解决贫困的办法。而是让政府找到一个推卸责任的护身符，轻松执政！不...

Should we be grateful for the scrapping of the TV licence?

The Government announced in its Budget the radio and TV licence (RTV) fees will henceforth be abolished. This means that Singaporeans will no longer have to pay $110 a year for the TV licence and $27 for a radio licence. In his announcement, Minister for Finance Mr Thraman Shanmugaratnam said that the requirement for a TV licence...