True, but in Sg there is no indication that they do.

Indeed, street criminality is very low. Tokyo is a pleasure to walk around at night. There may be relatively dangerous areas that I am not aware of, but not at all on the level of certain american cities.

It was a figure of speech. I meant, it is very difficult to find a dangerous area in Singapore. The most seedy place is probably Geylang and it is still very safe. There are areas in for example Brussels and Paris (both are otherwise nice cities) where I prefer not to walk at night. Probably nothing would happen, but the feeling of being less safe is palpably there.

Your point being?

Look, I agree with the principle about democracy. However, living there I began to change my mind, perhaps democracy is not as good for the population as enlightened despotism like in Singapore. I originte from Belgium where so many issues and projects simply get stuck in endless politicall squabbles. Not so in Singapore which is run like an efficient company. You have to live there to appreciate it.

Again, if you are into drugs, then it is best to stay away. Everyone in Signapore, not just the government, prefers you being not in their country.
Honestly, what is bad about that? Drugs are linked to increased criminal activity. The city state successfully scared off the smugglers.Perhaps the USA should take an example in this matter instead.

Regarding "jailing homosexuals", you are plain wrong. There are a good number of lbgt people in the city. It is true, very unfortunately it is still somewhere in the laws that it is forbidden, but to my knowledge it is only referred to in case of rape, paedophile misdeeds and the like, making the related punishment heavier. The city is not persuciting the lbgt community.

And your statistics are ridiculous, if you do not indulge in obviously criminal activities you will not get executed.

What is so difficult about leading a normal, non-criminal lifestyle?

Let us put things in perspective.These unfortunate riots were very exceptional. It has been more than 20 years since Singapore experienced something similar.

I partly agree, yet China is gradually implementing a Singapore-like model throughout the country with considerable economic success, but I agree that safety and general well being are far from the Singapore model at the moment.

Look, I am a normal dude who doesn't involve in criminal activities. Life is good then in Singapore.
If you think you can have a career in drug dealing, then you would indeed be very, very dumb to try that in Singapore. The result is that the city state is visibly suffering far less from drug abuse issues than nearly any other city.
And indeed, neither the government, NOR THE LOCALS, are fond of graffiti. If you want to be an asshole and try it anyway, well you know the risk associated.
And yes, even the locals call it a "fine" city as their are fines for a lot of misdemeanors, yet the fine system did change behaviour. As an amusing example, if I am remembering well, you can have a fine for not flushing in a public toilet. This had an effect, you have to keep in mind the poor uncultivated beginnings of Singapore.
Currently the behaviour of most everyone is changed, nobody even wonders if they should apply basic hygienic procedures.
I agree that whipping is draconian and overkill towards foreigners overstaying their work visum. It is luckily enough of a deterrent to strongly discourage the practice.

In general however it is not at all a fascist police state. I have lived there, I experienced it. I would call the non-democratic government rather a kind of "enlightened despotism", and I (and my fellow expats back then) had to admit that they did a lot of things very, very well indeed.

Interestingly, Singapore in the 1980s was the model for Deng Xiaoping who during a visit noticed how you can have good prosperity and strong government influence together. This is how he started the reforms that made China into the economic powerhouse that it is now.

It was an example. What I want to say is that it is very difficult in Singapore to find a dangerous area. The most "seedy" place is probably the Geylang district, yet it is very safe as well. I have been in multiple cities, originally I am European, but have travelled to many cities all around the globe. The general safety and quality impression in Singapore is truly remarkable. In these two elements, Singapore and Tokyo are both excellent.

I have lived 2 years in Singapore, and indeed it is a tremendously safe place. Nobody worries about taking a shortcut through an alley, something not done in most western cities. It does mean that my local friends were often uncomfortable when traveling abroad, all countries seem dangerous after you've experienced Singapore.

It may not be a democracy, but we have to admit, they do a lot of things RIGHT. It is a pleasure to live there, as long as you have no political ambitions.

I have eaten it once in Norway. My friend and I thought it was excellent. It is a very dark meat that tastes somewhere between a beefsteak and a tuna. I understand the reasons for a ban, I can also understand that people like the meat.

Next to easy repairs of household items (instead of the western way of throwing things away), it all depends on your creativity level. And you need to have a bit a tinkerer mindset.
As an example: I love to dabble in electronics in my too scarce free time. It would be fun to have totally original case designs for some of my little projects instead of the usual generic boxes.

I like the concept of 3D printing. Beining a bit of a tinkerer, albeit with too little free time, I could see myself using one in a number of creative projects.
But the material used by most printers is an ugly ABS. Sturdy but not appealing.
Furthermore the detail level of what I have seen so far is no match for stereolithography.
Now progress is being made quickly. I think that within 5 years or so they will be at a reasonable hobbyist price offering a quality and flexibility level that I would be interested in buying.

As an aside the best sound that I ever experienced was from these 3 systems:

- Big Proac speakers driven by nagra electronics
- Enormous magneplanar panels driven by mcintosh electronics
and, refreshingly so,
- vintage deepfreezer-sized coxial Tannoys (Westminster model, or similar) driven by some kind of truly vintage tube amp.

In all cases except perhaps the last example the speakers will have made the biggest difference in the end result of course.
I experienced other systems at shows that irritated me so much that I could not stay in the room with them.