1. S. Korea became an fully democratic country in 1998 dumping all remnants of past authoritarianism. Singapore still not fully democratic.
2. S. Korea believe in developing own people educating each one to highest level. Today 60% of Koreans are graduates. The PAP capped the number of people educated to university to below 30% per cohort less than half that of koreans. Then use govt funds to educate children of foreigners free of charge. Many Singaporeans unable to go to university have to raise money to go overseas.
3. S. Korea believe in strongly in equality. Minimum wage is implemented for workers who are free to form unions and protest against unfairness.
4. S. Korea cares for its old and sick. Every citizen is protected under a universal health care system and nobody is left out.
5. S. Korea faces direct threat of war from N. Korea. Despite this it does not overspend on defense. Its defense budget is US$27B - Singapore spends on a per capita basis several times that amount. Its National Service is 21 months and it is ready for war any time.
6. When faced with fall in fertility rate, the koreans did not import foreigners to make up the numbers but implemented measures to try to reverse the problem.
7. Instead of importing cheap labor to keep backward industry, the S. Koreans relocated these industires to China and Vietnam rather than flood their country with foreign influx.
8. Koreans build their industry ground up instead of bringing in multinationals and dependence on foreign money.
Today Koreans are world beaters their achievements in electronic industry is disproportionate to the size of their country of 50M people. In culture, even Britney Spears is learning Gangnam style dance....what more can we say. As for democracy, it is one of the few things they imported and they made it better - with 60% of the people as graduates, voters cannot be treated as sheep.
When S.Koreans build casinos, they legislated that only foreigners can gamble in the casions and only locals can work there. In Singapore's casinos, you find more locals gambling and foreigners working in there - they are owned and run by foreigners ...ARE WE S_TUPID?
Today they are world beaters. When they shed their authoritarianism, they did not sink but rose to the top of the world in many areas - yet our leaders tell us we cannot be fully democratic, we cannot allow protests, we cannot get rid of ISD. The Koreans got rid of all those and now they send us GANGNAM STYLE...oh what excuse do our leaders have to continue to deny us!
Hard truth 1:
ReplyDeleteAverage and Median income of Singapore is higher than South Korea
Hard truth 2:
South Korea property is more expensive than Singapore
Hard truth 3:
Competition for places in university in South Korea is stiffer than Singapore to the point that it is common to see students committing suicide if they are unable to get in
Hard truth 4:
Your so called "world beating economy of Korea" lags behind Singapore's economy growth in the last few years