Sir Stamford Raffles is the founding father of Sinkapore! Pls spread the words !

[Ramseth]

Singapore was an entreport even in the pre-PAP history books. If I remember correctly it attained the status of a city in the early 60's. Do you know that in the US, except for a few metropolitan areas, the rest are just towns and not cities?

Tell that to LKY. US is a federation made up of state, county, city and town levels.

 

[Fook Seng]

There are many other good things from the colonial's legacy such as public housing. It wasn't started by PAP but the British had already laid down a good foundation with the Singapore Improvement Trust or S.I.T, a pre-cursor to HDB.

I have to agree with this. Tiong Bharu was one such Art Deco development, the walk up apartments along Alexander Road (recently demolished), Dakota Close were other examples. The real spurt in HDB development came only after the Bukit Ho Swee fire, which carried a rumour I do not wish to repeat here. Today with the high prices attached to HDB flats, benchmarked against market rates for land, about the only thing public about these are the strict govt regulations governing the purchase, sale and rental of these properties.

 

[Fook Seng]

Tell that to LKY. US is a federation made up of state, county, city and town levels.

LKY knows clearly. He needs not be told. We always think that the US is highly urbanized but there are not that many cities with population of more than a million. Surprisingly Australia with a much smaller population and generally gives the impression of an agricultural country has a relatively high number of cities of more than 1 million, five I believe.

 

[Ramseth]

LKY knows clearly. He needs not be told. We always think that the US is highly urbanized but there are not that many cities with population of more than a million. Surprisingly Australia with a much smaller population and generally gives the impression of an agricultural country has a relatively high number of cities of more than 1 million, five I believe.

If he knows, then why keeps saying Singapore was an fishing village before he took over?

 

[Fook Seng]

If he knows, then why keeps saying Singapore was an fishing village before he took over?

Best known to him.

 

[Kohliantye]

The education system is another example. Under the British, even a secondary 2 or 3 student could read/write better English than our graduates now including some ministers (Zorro is good example).

I totally agree with what freedalas had said.
Today, the command of English is truly getting poorer and poorer by the day.
So many spelling error continue to appear on the State television news channels. Look closely and you will note.
Our so-called highly-educated journalist are also equally in the same shoes. Look at the news in the papers... You and me (graduates of "sekolah attap") can easily detect the glaring mistakes.
Our sign-boards placed outside by the RC's, CCC, CCMC (whatever other C there maybe) also carry many grammatical errors.
Other good examples are as follows: "Erection of School" as "Election of School".
I remember receiving an email from a friend of a photo that showed a sign in a hospital with the following direction in English:
"For Family Planning Matters Please Use the Back-side". Probably the Family Clinic was at the rear of the hospital concerned.
Hope a day will not dawn, when we too have such signs like "Sleepy Floor Beware" in a toilet at Changi Airport.
Those who think that they speak too good English can also be of help by directly replying to something in a conversation that they don't understand, as a simple "sorry I don't understand" instead of "your bombascity, perplexity and complexity is beyond my capacity of apprehension".
It is very true that even certain Ministers cannot speak proper English. I am shy to name them as they are all "specially-selected by a Committee" and command such obscene salaries.
The leaders who spoke good simple English in the past were the late Devan Nair, Rajaratnam, JBJ and EW Barker. The other is the present LKY and his son LHL.
My favourite radio is 92.40. Hear the DJs and you will hear the following, "lets have a listen of Mozart, blah, blah, blah UuRRRgggghhhh.