What makes Singapore such a unique country? Where is it located and what is the weather like? How has Singapore become a city in a garden? Why does it have such an open economy? What is the government structure and what are some laws that are unique to just Singapore? Why is multiculturalism such an integral part of Singapore society? What is the food culture and what traditions are followed? And what's a brief history of Singapore? We'll dive into these questions and many more in today's episode
A Brief Intro to Singapore Know Before You Go Welcome to Wiser World, a podcast for busy people who need a refresher on all things world. Here we explore different regions of the globe, giving you the facts and context you need to think historically about current events. I truly believe that the more we learn about the world, the more we embrace our shared humanity. I'm your host, Alli Roper. Thanks for being here.
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That Consists of spoken word hypnosis meditation and stories. So if you want to listen to a beautiful soundscape tonight, search for calm cove on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and see how we're helping millions of people relax and go to sleep every night. Welcome back. It's been a while since I did a no before you go episode for those of you who don't know what these are. These are episodes that are basically a country in a quick snapshot.
A short episode covers location, food, culture, religion, government, and a little bit of history of a country that's kind of a more common travel destination. My 101 episodes are deep dives into history, but these are more like snorkeling over the essential stuff that you should know to get a feel for a place before you visit, but it's also great for folks who aren't traveling
and just want to learn a little bit more about a country. They're a little shorter, a little less in depth, but one of my favorite parts about doing research on these different countries is I find that each country really has its own unique story to tell me and I find myself getting sucked into different aspects of the country with Singapore today. I got really sucked into some of the laws there.
So anyway, if you find that I didn't spend enough time on something you'd like to know more about, consider this open invite, go do some research on your own to learn more about it because this is by no means a full comprehensive look at Singapore. It's just a springboard to get us thinking about it because it really is a fascinating place that we should know about. So let's start off with the location. So the Republic of Singapore is one main island, Singapore Island, with about
60 small little islands nearby. The main island is about 50 kilometers from east to west, 27 kilometers north to south. That's 31 miles east to west, 17 miles north to south. So it's a little bit smaller than the size of New York City. It's found in Southeast Asia right at the southern tip of the Mele Peninsula. There are actually two bridges that connect it to the Mele Peninsula, which is part of Malaysia. And that's just under Thailand and close to nearby Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia.
Singapore is this tiny, tiny country right between Malaysia and Indonesia. And it's in a critical crucial location when it comes to shipping, which is one of the many reasons why it is such a hub for commerce. But more on that. More on that in a minute. Feel free to look at a map online. You want to know where it is or you can join patreon.com slash wiserworld podcast. I give you maps, additional images and ideas and resources for just a few dollars a month. And you support the podcast.
But anyway, because Singapore is so close to the equator, the climate is tropical rainforest. Warm to quite warm. High humidity, lots of rain all year round. Monsoon seasons are real. In fact, the average rainfall for Singapore is 92 inches a year. That's 7.6 feet or 2.3 meters. That's a lot of rain. And something to keep in mind if you're planning to visit because you'll want to dress accordingly, lightweight clothes and bring an umbrella. Singapore is relatively flat,
just some small hills. In fact, the largest spot in Singapore is only 538 feet, 166 meters above sea level. And has no let natural lakes, only man-made lakes for storing fresh water. Singapore is very urban. The majority of the island is covered by urban sprawl. It's a city. In fact, it's actually called a city state because it's both a country and a city. Ultimately, it's very compact. It's very urban and it's hot and humid. However, even though it's mostly a huge city, Singapore is
really succeeded in creating intentional green spaces everywhere. It's actually called a city in a garden because there are trees everywhere. This is very intentional. They've done this because they want people to feel like they're accessing nature even though they're in a huge urban space. In fact, in some areas, the buildings kind of, I don't know how to put this in a better way, but work with me here. The buildings kind of begin on the second floor and there's green parks
on the first floor as you're walking by. It kind of feels like you're walking through a garden, as you're walking through parts of the business district. Instead of feeling like you're in this concrete jungle where there's just buildings on your sides, it's actually quite green. And then you look up and, whoa, it's actually a building up there. I think that's fascinating and very intentionally planned, which you're going to see as a theme for Singapore. Well, because it's a
city state, Singapore's capital is Singapore. And the name comes from the melee word Singapore, which translates in Sanskrit to lion city. Legend has it that a Samatran prince came to the island and spotted a lion while hunting. So he called the the island Singapore. And side note lions have never lived there. It was probably a big cat, probably a million tiger, but anyway, that's where the name comes from. Roughly six million people live there, which makes it one of the most densely
populated areas in the world. Lots of people, small space to give this context. New York City has a little over 11,000 people per square kilometer. And Singapore has about 8,300 people per square kilometer. So it's not quite the density of New York City, but it's close. One interesting fact about modern Singapore is they have a very efficient and reliable public transit system. So getting around without a car is the norm. To get a car in Singapore is this is just my dick.
It's outrageously expensive because the government wants to manage traffic and congestion. So to get a license to own and drive a car is very expensive. For example, to get a large family car license, it's determined actually by a bidding process and costs over a hundred thousand US dollars. There are also very expensive taxes on cars during registration and pretty intense import duties and dealer margins. A new Toyota Camry costs roughly 28,000 US dollars in the United States.
And it costs over 230,000 dollars in Singapore. So you're not going to see a whole lot of cars. And if you do, you know those people are live and large, right? All right, let's talk government for a second. Singapore is a parliamentary representative Democratic Republic and a very unique one at that. If you're wondering what all those words mean, I recommend episode 26 of my podcast. I talk about governmental systems. But essentially, it means
that Singapore has an executive branch with a president of Singapore as its head of state. And then that person's elected by popular vote. And then they also have a prime minister. Then they have a legislative branch. That's the parliament. They are also voted in. And they have a judiciary branch. This is probably very familiar to those of you who live in Democratic Republic
style countries. It's very similar. Singapore is known for having a strong rule of law and being very effective in its governance in the sense that it has created a very strong economy and generally low levels of corruption. However, Singapore does have a dominant political party called the PAP People's Action Party. And it's often seen as a one party state because that political party is,
like I said, it's pretty dominant. Opposition parties do exist. But there isn't near as much competition or opposition to the PAP as it would they would have say in a two or three party system. So without this challenge, the PAP has created a lot of regulations over civil liberties that some people love and some people don't love. And this is where I started to get really sect into the research. So I think you're going to find this interesting if you know nothing about Singapore. For example,
littering has a very large fine in Singapore. As does spitting. You cannot publicly spit in Singapore on like on a street. You also can't smoke in public places in Singapore. There are designated areas just for smoking and you can't eat or drink on a lot of public transport like trains. Selling gum is illegal in Singapore. Riding a bike without a helmet has a very hefty fine. And actually, if you use your phone while riding a bike, you can even get jail time. It's a pretty
big deal. Another interesting one is you can't walk around naked at home. If there's any chance of exposing yourself, like if you have a window where someone could see you, this is punishable by law. Signing onto an unsecured wireless network, like if your neighbor has Wi-Fi with no password and you sign up for it, that's a huge fine. Even could be jail time. And so there's a lot of little
regulations and things like that in Singapore that you might not find in other places. But onto some bigger ones, it is illegal to organize a public assembly in Singapore if you don't have a police permit. And political causes for gatherings are rarely given a permit. There are strong laws about distributing seditious publications. Seditious kind of means that they're designed to persuade people to rebel or to act against something. So if you have strong laws against seditious
publications, you're basically, it's against persuading people to rebel, right? So that's kind of interesting. The very strict laws also on drugs and drug trafficking. In some cases, if you drug traffic, it gets you the death penalty. So again, it's up for debate. Some people call Singapore a hybrid regime with like democratic principles, but also some authoritarian qualities. Some people really like that part about Singapore. It really depends on who you talk to,
what they value. Nearly 80% of Singaporeans live in public housing estates that are managed by the Singaporean government, the housing and development board, if we really want to get technical. This is also a really unique system. The government essentially builds, sells, and subsidizes flats for affordable housing for not just low income families, but also for middle and upper income groups as well. Part of the reason for this is rooted in ethnic groups and promoting racial diversity.
So let's talk about that for a second because this is a big part about Singapore. Singapore is a diverse place, but the three major ethnic groups for Singaporeans are Chinese, Malay, Malaysian, and Indian. Roughly 74% are from Chinese descent, and 13% from Malay descent, 9% are Indian descent. The rest are other ethnic groups. Singapore has a pretty significant expat community of people from all over the world, especially Europe, US, Canada, living there. Because of this diversity,
Singapore's government is very, very focused on racial harmony and multiculturalism. You look of Singapore, and that's one of the main things that comes up. Actually starting in 1989, the government instituted what's called the ethnic integration policy. And this mandates or requires racial quotas in public housing estates to make sure that there's a balanced mix of different ethnic groups. In other words, you can't have an apartment complex of all people of Chinese descent.
It's not allowed. It requires an encourages residents from different ethnic groups to live together, to have to interact together, to have to create relationships. And when we were traveling recently,
my husband and I met a couple actually from Canada who live in work in Singapore. And they were telling us that this concept was something that they happened to really like about Singapore, and that even in public spaces like large food halls, these hawker areas where lots of food vendors are selling, excuse me, there were rules that encouraged racial mixing even in those food halls, and that it's generally embraced in the culture. And people are very intentional about having a
multicultural, racially diverse and welcoming society. There are also various initiatives in communities to organize activities that bring people together. As we were talking with this couple, I started to realize I had a lot of questions about this. Like, why would this work in a small place like Singapore could it work in other places? Is this ethical? Is it not ethical? What would be some of the challenges of implementing something like this and where I live or in other parts of the
world? Anyway, it was a fascinating thought experiment and something that I'm still thinking about today and would make a very interesting dinner time conversation with friends of family. But anyway, because different housing developments and neighborhoods have these quotas for balancing ethnic groups, it also allows people of many races to develop really long-term relationships, because theoretically speaking, they would grow up together, attend the same schools,
celebrate each other's holidays, and have deep relationships. So kind of an interesting thought. English is seen as a neutral language. So English is the primary language in Singapore, but they also want to preserve cultural heritage with other mother tongues. So it is compulsory to learn your mother tongue generally, which shows that Singapore is again very interested in preserving ethnic diversity while also having intentional social cohesion, which is very unique to Singapore.
There are four official languages in Singapore. English, Mele, Mandarin, and Tamil, T-A-M-I-L. English is the most widely used in business, government law, education, all these English, and it's kind of that bridge language. Sometimes English can be known as Singlish, which kind of incorporates elements from various languages spoken in Singapore, and that's more widely used in informal settings, not so much in business. Mele is used for the
national anthem and for ceremonial things. Mandarin is used amongst the Chinese community. Tommy will represent the Indian community. Again, there's more languages than just that, but those are kind of the main four. Singapore is known for being a widely successful business hub, and its economy is one of the most dynamic and competitive in the world. And as I'm recording
this in 2024, it has the most open economy in the world. Now, when I say open economy, what a meaning is that Singapore has minimal barriers to the flow of capital goods services. It's heavily involved in international trade, and it has very few tariffs. So there's more of a free flow of things coming in and out has very busy ports. Its economy is heavily reliant
on international trade because of its location for shipping routes. It's also very pro business, meaning that there are low taxes on businesses and there are incentives for an investment, which is why it's a hub for finance as well. There are a lot of theories on why Singapore can do what Singapore does, and a lot of people who have studied this in depth are spending their life
studying this. So I'm not going to go into depth on it, but probably the simplest answer for why it can pull all of this off is because it has a small domestic market and not a lot of natural resources. And so it has to play its cards well to keep up on the global scale, and it can get away with this form of economy because it's quite small. It's known for investing in its people.
Singaporeans prize education, and they want an intelligent workforce. It exports more than it imports, and its top exports are integrated circuits or silicon chips used in technology, and also machinery. The currency in Singapore is a Singapore dollar, and it's really a unique thing. Singapore manages the Singapore dollar by managing the exchange rate rather than the interest rate.
The reason for this is because trade is central again to its economy. We talked about that. So because it has a high level of imports, the exchange rate is more important to things like inflation than a domestic interest rate would be in Singapore. So the exchange rate is going to make more of a difference over goods and services than an interest rate would because it's a small island, doesn't have much land for agriculture. Singapore imports over 90% of its food, which makes food security
a real challenge there. The government has a goal of 30 by 30, which hopes to produce 30% of the country's nutritional needs by 2030. And if you're interested in food supply and food innovation, I suggest looking into it. They're really doing stuff, and it's pretty fascinating. The most commonly practiced religion in Singapore is Buddhism. Roughly 30% of Singaporeans identify as
Buddhist most of those are of Chinese descent. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, all popular as well, and about 20% of the population has no religious affiliation at all. Did archaeologists discover Noah's Ark? Is the rapture coming as soon as the Euphrates River dries up? Does the Bible condemn abortion? Don't you wish you had a trustworthy academic resource
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dream. In fact, one stereotype about Singaporeans is that they are all foodies, and the more I looked into that, it seems as though that's a really positive stereotype to me, and it seems to be true. Because of the focus on multiculturalism, and food is central to culture, Singapore has a strong food scene with a lot of options. Singapore is known for their hawker centers, where different food vendors come to sell their food, and there's a huge variety
of people and cultures represented. And as for the food itself, the most famous dish is the Hananese chicken rice. It's basically a poached chicken with seasoned rice, and it's usually served with a chili sauce. Another popular dish is chili crab. This is a kind of savory sweet tomato-based sauce with crabs cooked into it. Again, they're right on the water. Aloxa, a sweet noodle soup, also very popular. This is making me hungry. I could go on and on, but Singapore has a great
food scene. And when it comes to traditions and festivals in Singapore, a lot of them are based off of the major ethnic groups that live there, such as Chinese New Year, which I have an episode on, episode 19, Diwali's popular. That's episode 34, if you want to learn about that. And they also celebrate, generally, like the end of Ramadan. That's episode 23. So there's a reverence and respect for various cultures, and it is also good manners to take off your shoes before entering a home,
or places of worship. It's also good manners there to dress modestly before entering religious sites. And generally, it's good manners to wait until the host starts eating before starting to eat yourself. If you're planning a trip to Singapore, make sure to dress for the heat, but also to dress modestly in the sense that you can be able to go in and out of some of these sacred sites quickly. There's also high cleanliness standards in Singapore. So make sure to study
up on those laws, make sure you know what's up. It's a very safe place to travel, very low crime rate, the water safe to drink. And there's a lot to do in Singapore. In fact, the Singapore airport has been rated the best airport in the world. So that's always a bonus. Now we've talked about the cultural side. Let's talk a little bit about the history and the history is fascinating. So I'm excited to share this. Until the early 1800s, there really isn't a whole
lot of written history available about Singapore. What we do know is that it was called Sea Town in Old Javanese. It was an important part of trade routes between the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea. This little island was also part of an important empire from Indonesia for a time. It was taken over by a Malaysian Sultanate for a while. But in the late 1700s, it really wasn't highly
populated and mostly was just involved in regional trade. And during the 1600s and 1700s, you'll remember the British and the Dutch began taking more of an interest in Southeast Asia. For example, this is the time when the British East India Company began to be quite powerful in the region. It wasn't until 1819, though, when Sir Stamford Raffles, that's Stamford with an M, not an N, Stamford Raffles of the British East India Company, made Singapore a big trading post.
This is the moment when Singapore began to become more of a major hub. And Stamford Raffles is a big name in Singapore because of this. There's the Raffles Hotel, there's a Raffles Institute, you know, these are luxury iconic hotels and education centers. There are also statues of him throughout Singapore. Eventually, because of this, Singapore became a British colony. And then when the Suez Canal opened in 1869, that's in Egypt, right? The Suez Canal opened in 1869,
trade from Europe to Asia became much, much more convenient. And since Singapore was known as a free port, which means it has no tariffs, these merchants began to be very interested in Singapore. So we had people from Europe, India, Malaysia, China, all over living in Singapore in the name of commerce. And the economy had a huge boom largely because tin and rubber became very popular exports out of the Malay Peninsula. Singapore is right there. It was the port through which everything
was traded. And eventually, a British naval base was even built in Singapore. It was finished in 1938, 1938. This is right before World War II. This was a big flex for the British against the Japanese who were expanding into the area at the time, right? So at this point, Singapore is a critical British colony. Now, British colonialism had both positive and negative effects. It
depends on really how you want to look at it. Historical perspective does matter here. The colonial society was set up along racial lines, Europeans at the top, then Eurasians, then local Asian populations. They didn't invest a whole lot at the time into social services, which did leave to some inequality between locals and non-locals. At the same time, they did introduce Western education, the English language. This set Singapore up to one day compete on a world stage. So there
wasn't much political representation for local populations during this time. The British weren't friendly to dissent. They weren't friendly to dissent anywhere, right? But from the economic standpoint, Britain really honed in on Singapore's ports, increased trading, this led to economic success and a legacy of infrastructure development that still benefits Singapore today. So like pretty much everything we study in history, we got a double-edged sword here. In December of 1941, just after
Pearl Harbor and Hawaii was attacked, Japan made a big push through Southeast Asia. And Singapore fell to the Japanese the next month, the beginning of 1942. This was a blow to the British. In fact, Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Britain at the time, he called it, quote, the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history. End of quote. So the Japanese taking over Singapore, it was a big deal. For the next four years, Singapore was occupied by the Japanese. This is a dark
time for Singapore. The Japanese renamed Singapore Light of the South and its people endured severe hardships. There were food shortages, forced labor, many atrocities committed by the Japanese occupying forces. One notorious atrocity was the Suk Ching massacre. This was when the Japanese systematically executed somewhere between 5,000 to 50,000 ethnically Chinese people. So very harsh, a very difficult time for Singapore. And it made a difference. It made a significant difference
for Singapore. And just like many countries that had experienced occupation, people in Singapore began pushing for the concept of self-governance during this time. But in 1945, when Japan lost World War II, Singapore went back to the British who started rebuilding the economy and the infrastructure. But Singapore wasn't the same as it had been prior to the occupation. Local people wanted
more of a say. And the world was moving this way as well. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while now, you know that this was the case in many areas around the world that had been colonized by European forces or outside forces. Self-determination is definitely a major theme in the post-World War II era. And Singapore was no different. By 1946, Singapore became a separate crown colony. It had a civil administration, had a governor, constitutional reform,
gradually started happening. So the locals could participate in the government. And for the next 13 years or so, the concept of independence was definitely on the collective Singaporean psyche. And in 1959, Singapore had its first general election. And a man named Lee Kuan Yew was elected as Singapore's first prime minister. Now, this is a name you want to know. In fact, if you remember a name of Singapore, I think it's probably best to know this one. Lee Kuan Yew.
He's very important. He served as prime minister from 1959 to 1990. So it has a long time. He is of Chinese descent, grew up in Singapore. He was educated in English, attended high in schools, survived the Japanese occupation of World War II. He graduated with a law degree that he earned in Great Britain. And in 1954, he co-founded the People's Action Party, the PAP, with the goal to achieve self-governance for Singapore. And after he became prime minister in 1959, he and his party
began working on economic development, housing and education. And also negotiating a merger to join with Malaysia. And in 1963, Singapore declared itself independent from Britain and became part of Malaysia. The hope was that Singapore would benefit from a larger market, which could improve economic growth, help Singapore become more stable. But unfortunately, this merger with Malaysia really did not work out. For example, Singapore's PAP, the People's Action Party, they didn't love
that under Malaysia's constitution, melee people had special privileges. They wanted more equal rights for all races, but the Malaysian government wanted more Malaysian supremacy. Likewise, Singapore wanted more autonomy with economic matters. They didn't always want the Malaysian restrictions. But the Malaysian government was also worried that Singapore would become too dominant. And eventually, the political and racial tensions between these two groups grew to be
too much. The ethnically Chinese and the melee conflicted, led to race riots in the city of Singapore, both accusing the other of discrimination and mistreatment. It was really rough, rough enough that in the middle of 1965, the Malaysian Prime Minister decided to expel Singapore from the Federation. Yes, that's correct. In under two years, it's like Singapore, you're on your own, figured out. And the official separation on was on August 9, 1965, which made Singapore officially
its own independent and sovereign state. Some of you listening to this were probably alive when this happened. You may even remember it. At a press conference announcing the separation, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore Prime Minister, right, he became totally overcome with emotions and he broke down on public television. Like, how are we going to do this? This Malaysian merger had kind of been his baby. It had been something he'd hoped would bring prosperity to Singapore. And it had failed.
And he knew that Singapore was at a very uncertain position with some real vulnerabilities and he and his crew had this pretty huge responsibility to create a whole national identity which he saw as a very daunting task. He actually called it, quote, a moment of anguish. End of quote, I mean, can you imagine that job? Oh, man, at the time, there was high
unemployment, housing shortages, a lack of natural resources. But over time, Lee Kuan Yew and his government began to implement a vision for a multiracial, economically vibrant Singapore. They created policies for infrastructure. They promoted industrialization. They promoted education to create a capable workforce. They worked hard to attract foreign investment, attracting multinational corporations, making it easier to do business in Singapore was an
extremely high priority at the time. They also increased manufacturing. And we talked about some of those social policies that Singapore has today. Some of those were put into place during these years that followed the separation. Some of them happened later, but there was massive public housing projects started to improve living conditions and more strong leadership to foster racial harmony because you'll remember in the 1960s and prior, it had been a problem.
It honestly didn't take that long for Singapore to become a global economic powerhouse. By the 1970s, it was doing quite well. And by the 1980s, it was recognized as one of the four Asian tigers alongside Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. It became very stable. The PAP maintained a dominant position in government. Lee's leadership style was pretty strict. He maintained very strict control over political dissent, but he was disciplined and efficient and expected this of his
government. This high standard led to robust economy and high standard of living for the tiny island, but he also has been criticized for being very strict over political dissent. So again, multifaceted person, multifaceted leadership style. He's generally very well respected for his global diplomacy. A lot of people study him for how to turn an economy around, but again, multiple angles on the sky. After 31 years of his leadership, there was a new prime minister named Go Chuk Tong,
and he came in in 1990. And Singapore grew and diversified economically in the 1990s, the government focused on enhancing Singapore's position as a global city. So they invested in technology, and innovation, and education, and one initiative that they started was called Singapore 21. This was a very intentional move to focus not just on economic achievements, which had been the focus for a long time, but also on societal achievements. So focusing on people and their well-being.
The idea was that Singaporeans should be happy people, living meaningful lives, and able to raise their families. And a stronger national unity took shape. This meant that the public sector, the private sector, and the people sector had to work together to build the society that they had this vision for. We know the public sector is the government, private sector business, but this people sector that they're talking about were community groups, kind of voluntary groups.
And they talked with over 6,000 Singaporeans from different walks of life, different economic statuses to understand the needs of the people and to figure out what values and attitudes were needed to create this cohesive society. Honestly, I am so impressed by the intentionality of this. And Singapore's economy is still strong. Finance, biotechnology, information technology, they all thrive there. It continues to attract talent and business. Obviously, it's not perfect.
There are still income inequality, aging population, quest for environmental sustainability, a dominant one-party system that some people like, some people don't. But from everything I've researched about Singapore, you can't say that they're not intentional. In fact, if I were to describe Singapore in one word, it would be intentional. A lot of the things that are going on in Singapore are very, very intentionally planned. Before we wrap up, there are some stereotypes about
Singapore that I think are really great discussions starters. So if you're listening with someone right now, hopefully this gives you some conversation fodder, right? Because stereotypes often have kernels of truth. So let's talk about them for a minute. For one, the book and the film Crazy Rich Asians really shine a light on the immense wealth that exists in Singapore. And this does have some truth. There are people in Singapore who are, for lack of a better term, crazy rich. But it's
also important to recognize that not everyone in Singapore is crazy rich. Some people, when they talk about Singapore, they talk about materialism and that materialism, materialism is very high there. Other people don't see it that way. So really depends. There's a range of incomes. It is a very expensive place to live. So that's a barrier to entry. It is common to have a maid or domestic help in Singapore. And this is not only because of wealth, but because many families are dual income
families. Both parents work. They live with aging parents. Most of the maids come from Indonesia or the Philippines. And depending on your income level and your social circle, right? This is materialism and wealth are going to be a topic. There's also a major focus in Singapore on work and education. Very competitive culture in a lot of ways. There's a thing called kiosk to culture. This is kiosk means more or less like a fear of missing out or a fear of losing. And it kind of
highlights this competitive nature. And you know, this can be seen as positive. This can be seen as negative, depending on how you want to shake it. Does it lead to higher anxiety and overcompetition? Possibly. It also shows a commitment to excellence and achievement. So again, you know, when you're looking at a culture, you're looking at history, you're looking at a people. Everything is nuanced. There's a lot going. There's a lot going on, right? But I think there's some really good
conversation starters here in this episode. And I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. You can find me on Instagram, wiserworldpodcast, or you can find me on patreon.com slash wiserworldpodcast. I love to hear your thoughts. What do you think about some of these things? Okay, I am going to stop there. It's been a blast researching Singapore for this episode. It's now high on my list of places to visit. And if you've enjoyed this episode and you want to learn more head to patreon.com slash
wiserworldpodcast. Also make sure to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcasting app so that you're notified when new episodes drop. You can also subscribe to my free monthly email by going to my website wiserworldpodcast.com. This allows me to email you once a month and say, hey, here's the episode of the month. And then you don't have to be on social media. I will be back in a month with more on the world. I've got a lot of good stuff coming this fall. I'm really excited about
it. Thank you for learning about Singapore with me today. And let's go out and make the world a little wiser.