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Landing at Singapore this past week I have been delighted to learn more about the history and society in Singapore. It’s really a unique city with a very interesting government style. Most people talk about how clean it is – that’s true. It’s also true that crime is low and police are hard to see from day to day. There’s also a negative tax rate, believe it or not, for Singapore residents. This is thanks to the way the government has setup universal savings plans that rely on contributions from salaries and employers.

I found Singapore to be a very diverse place, with all sorts of asian nationalities represented and plenty of white folks too. The stats back this perspective- a country of 4 million people, 3 million of which are permanent residents. The remaining 1 million are visiting in some way. You have a majority chinese, then a large group of Malay and finally Indian people too.

The country is making a success of politics quite unlike anything I have seen. Ever the skeptic I try my best to see how the government might have ulterior motives for some of the policies they have implemented, but I struggle. There seems to be a very real purists philosophy as to what the authorities are there for and how they should go about doing things. They seem to really want to benefit society. Obviously it helps that Singapore politicians get paid almost 4 times as much as their european counterparts. Why? Because the most celebrated leader of the country stated that, in order to get the best minds on the important jobs, government had to compete with business for staff. Pay them well and they will come. It seems to have worked in many respects.

If you get the chance to visit Singapore, and you haven’t yet, please do so. It might have an image of a slightly boring but efficient metropolis but once you dig a little under the surface, you may be genuinely impressed by what they have going on over there.