your last hurrah...yen

If this is the Yen's last hurrah, I wonder what the implications might be for Singapore.

Like Japan, Singapore has a excellent national savings rate - which is never fully disclosed and for the right reasons. From as far as I know, most of it is used to service public investments abroad. Singapore in that sense is cushioned for the time being, relying on its negative public debt (it is negative I think. I will check and edit this post should it turn out differently) to further expand on its infrastructure and prepare to fundamentally change the economy to suit the changing needs of multi-nationals. Sometimes I wonder how differently Singapore would have coped if it A) Never separated from Malaysia or B) Had adequate landmass, labour pool and natural resources.

I am currently studying, as part of a university requirement, a module on Singapore's history - one part political, one part social and one part on its economic history. One of my readings proclaimed (by Linda Low) that the government, on hindsight, did not have a grand plan in the eve of 1965 (right before merger). They improvised, made it up as they went along, guided by a group of highly motivated individuals in the process - I'm talking about the first generation PAP leaders - the links of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Dr. Goh Kheng Swee and Mr. S. Rajarathnam.

As a foreigner here, I have heard many locals complaining about the limited liberty they have here to express themselves. Some tell me they are not allowed to openly critcize the government, while others posit that PAP's unicameral politics is turning many youngsters apathetic towards Singapore politics. I don't hold an opinion on what they say to me, because first of all, I am an immigrant. My areas of concern lie more with the Manmohan Singh government, Indian National Congress and India's economic performance. However, on occasions I feel the need to point out to these people that not everything the government did or is doing has been out of line. Think about it, dear imaginary reader, post 1965, with the loss of a common goods market (that many envisioned Malaysia to provide), high unemployment arising from post war population boom, and absolutely no natural resources at its disposition, the government did turn Singapore into a first world country (with third world privileges). It takes meticulous planning, or improvisation in this case to pull off something like that. In their haste to critcize, which by the way is a common mentality here, the government, most of the people I come into contact with overlook this.

I should stop typing and finish off making note cards on Singapore's Education policy through the last half of the century.

Also, in a context not remotely related to the ongoing financial meltdown (hello Japanese government debt, which is almost as impressive as that of the US of A), the price of cockiness is almost cathartic. Funny too, to add on to the list. I hope Liverpool's defeat against Lyon is going to temporarily shut up the small fraction of their obnoxious fanbase whom I loathe - the ones who need to remind the rest of the football world about their five European cup triumphs. (By contrast, even the most hardcore of Real Madrid fans I have had the fortune of running into, do not need to boast or continuously remind everyone about their 9 European Champions league triumphs.

Though I am not generalising. The majority of the Merseysiders are polite - and indulge in civil rivalry with other fans. It's always the handfuls isn't it? Stupid black sheeps of the flock. No matter. I am just going to watch and snicker from the sidelines as they try to comfort each other by...yep, you guessed it. By reminding themselves how glorious their club used to be (yes they were, but overdoing it loses the appeal - clearly they missed the memo).