Singapore had, by the 1980s, emerged as one of the world's great oil refining and trading centres, with the "East of Suez" region within its sphere of influence. The city-state's policy-making went ...against the grain in much of its practice of economic development. It ensured that energy products were bought and sold in the domestic market at essentially global prices, in contrast to the common practice in developing countries of subsidizing energy fuels for social equity. Without a drop of oil of its own, Singapore also managed to attract large foreign investments in the capital-intensive oil refining and petrochemical manufacturing sectors in an export-oriented strategy. This was at a time when governments of most newly independent countries were busy trying to promote heavy industry by protectionist trade policies and import-substituting industrialization. The purpose of this book is two-fold. It is intended to introduce a host of energy-related discussions relevant to a wider group of readers who do not "do energy" for a living, yet are keenly interested in understanding the many complexities of modern industrial societies which need to balance economic, environmental, and security priorities of ordinary citizens. It is also meant to serve as an introductory assessment of key energy-related issues, with a particular relevance for small advanced countries such as Singapore.
Dr Goh Keng Swee was Singapore's first Minister for Finance from 1959 to 1965 who initiated Singapore's first industrial estate now known as Jurong Town. He was also the first and longest serving ...Defence Minister after Singapore became independent in 1965, responsible for building up the Singapore Armed Forces from scratch. Later he became Minister for Education in 1981 and revamped the education system to what it is today. Dr Goh was also concurrently Deputy Prime Minister from 1973 to 1984 during which time he set up the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Combining the World Englishes framework with First Language Acquisition methodology, this book investigates children’s acquisition of L1 English in the context of multilingual Singapore, one of the ...traditional Kachruvian Outer Circle or ESL countries. The book investigates language choice, use, and dominance in Singaporean families, identifies common linguistic characteristics of L1 Singapore English, as well as the acquisitional route that Singaporean children take. It discusses characteristics at the different levels of language organization, i.e., phonological, morphosyntactic, lexical, and pragmatic features, drawing on a variety of systematically elicited data and Praat-based acoustic analyses. Comparing the results to similar data obtained from children living in England (both mono- and bi-/multilingual), the book also sheds light on how the acquisitional steps taken by Singaporean children differ from or are similar to traditional native speakers of English and children from immigrant families in England.
"Revisionist" or "alternative" historians have increasingly questioned elements of the Singapore Story - the master narrative of the nation's political and socioeconomic development since its ...founding by the British in 1819. Much criticism focuses especially on one defining episode of the Story: the internal security dragnet mounted on 2 February 1963 against Communist United Front elements on the island, known to posterity as Operation Coldstore. The revisionists claim that Coldstore was mounted for political rather than security reasons and actually destroyed a legitimate Progressive Left opposition - personalized by the charismatic figure of Lim Chin Siong - rather than a dangerous Communist network as the conventional wisdom holds. Relying on both declassified and some previously unseen classified sources, this book challenges revisionist claims, reiterating the historic importance of Coldstore in helping pave the way for Singapore's remarkable journey from Third World status to First in a single generation.
This open access book highlights Singapore’s development into a city in which water and greenery, along with associated environmental, technical, social and political aspects have been harnessed and ...cultivated into a liveable sustainable way of life. It is also a story about a unique and thoroughgoing approach to large-scale and potentially transferable water sustainability, within largely urbanized circumstances, which can be achieved, along with complementary roles of environmental conservation, ecology, public open-space management and the greening of buildings, together with infrastructural improvements.
The Singapore Perspectives series is a yearly publication that provides critical analysis of emerging trends and issues Singapore faces in terms of social, economic and political development. It is a ...quick and essential reference for understanding the broad policy discussions that animate thought leaders, policy-makers and the public in the country during the immediate period or that are likely to do so in the short and medium term.
Queer Singapore Yue, Audrey; Zubillaga-Pow, Jun
10/2012
eBook
Singapore remains one of the few countries in Asia that has yet to decriminalize homosexuality. Yet it has also been hailed by many as one of the emerging gay capitals of Asia. This book accounts for ...the rise of mediated queer cultures in Singapore’s current milieu of illiberal citizenship. This collection analyses how contemporary queer Singapore has emerged against a contradictory backdrop of sexual repression and cultural liberalisation. Using the innovative framework of illiberal pragmatism, established and emergent local scholars and activists provide expansive coverage of the impact of homosexuality on Singapore’s media cultures and political economy, including law, religion, the military, literature, theatre, photography, cinema, social media and queer commerce. It shows how new LGBT subjectivities have been fashioned through the governance of illiberal pragmatism, how pragmatism is appropriated as a form of social and critical democratic action, and how cultural citizenship is forged through a logic of queer complicity that complicates the flows of oppositional resistance and grassroots appropriation.
Remembering the Samsui Women tells the story of women from the Samsui area of Guangdong, China, who migrated to Singapore during a period of economic and natural calamity, leaving their families ...behind. In their new country, many found work in the construction industry, while others worked in households or factories where they were called hong tou jin, translated literally as red-head-scarf, after the headgear that protected them from the sun. Contributing to current debates in the fields of social memory and migration studies, this is the first book to examine how the Samsui women remember their own migratory experiences and how they, in turn, are remembered as pioneering figures in both Singapore and China.
Ethnic and religious differences, a widening socio-economic divide, tension between foreigners and locals. These are some of the contemporary challenges to integration in Singapore. How we navigate ...them will determine the type of society we become. This book gathers the best social scientists in Singapore to examine issues of ethnicity, religion, class, and culture in order to understand the many different fault lines that run across the multicultural city-state. These essays are written in an engaging manner and are designed to present the authors' expertise to a wider audience.
Prominent scholars analyze how the dominant political parties in Malaysia and Singapore, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the People's Action Party (PAP), have stayed in power. With a ...focus on developments in the last decade and the tenures of prime ministers, the authors offer explanations for how these regimes remained resilient.
