The people are bright, usually the highest average I.Q. in the world, sometimes #2 to Hong Kong.
In the case of Singapore the I.Q. thing is especially interesting as their average is higher than that of any of the genetic pools the city-state draws from: the Chinese, Malay and Indian.
As a Malaysian Chinese businessman I know has told me, "We should never have let Singapore get away."
Another back-and-forth with Hong Kong is income/wealth. HK has more billionaires but Singapore has a higher average income.
And then there are the Gurkhas. More after the jump.
From the Financial Times:
Dyson is to build the first of its electric cars in Singapore, choosing the country over the UK and China to manufacture the product that the engineering brand hopes will come to define its business.Back to the Gurkha. If you tuned in to any of the coverage of the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore earlier this year you may have seen, in addition to the U.S. Secret Service and the North Korean security peeps jogging along with Kim's limo, you may have seen these chaps with the stylin' hats:
The vacuum maker had shortlisted one of its British sites where the car is being designed as a possible factory location, but opted for Singapore to be closer to its existing production hubs and its potential customers.
The privately owned group is planning to break into the automotive industry with a series of electric vehicles, using its existing knowledge in batteries and electric motors to give it the edge over established manufacturers.
It plans to invest £2bn in the scheme, with £1bn into battery technology and another £1bn into the development and construction of the vehicle itself.
The company stressed that Britain’s impending departure from the EU, a move supported by founder Sir James Dyson, was not a factor in its decision, which was announced on Tuesday morning to staff by Dyson chief executive Jim Rowan....MUCH MORE
Those are a couple members of Singapore's Gurkha Contingent. The gent in the foreground is the close-in guy, you can tell, not from the knife at his back, they all have those, but from the shotgun, whereas his partner has an automatic rifle.
Singapore employs 2000 as a very special department within the Singapore police.
Here's a story we linked to in 2011 about a Gurkha and some would-be rapists:
POKHARA, Jan 13: Gorkha soldiers have long been known the world over for their valor and these khukuri-wielding warriors winning the British many a battle have become folklore.Got that?
A retired Indian Gorkha soldier recently revisited those glory days when he thwarted 40 robbers, killing three of them and injuring eight others, with his khukuri during a train journey. He is in line to receive three gallantry awards from the Indian government.
Slave girl Morgiana in the Arabian Nights used her cunning to finish off Ali Baba´s 40 thieves, but Bishnu Shrestha of Baidam, Pokhara-6 did not have time to plot against the 40 train robbers. He, however, made good use of his khukuri to save the chastity of a girl and hundreds of thousands in loot.
Shrestha, who was in the Maurya Express to Gorakhpur from Ranchi on September 2 while returning home following voluntary retirement from the Indian army--saved the girl who was going to be raped by the robbers in front of her hapless parents, and in doing so won plaudits from everybody.
The Indian government is to decorate Shrestha with its Sourya Chakra, Bravery Award and Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Medal and the 35-year-old is leaving for India Saturday to receive the first of the awards on the occasion of India´s Republic Day on January 26.
“The formal announcement of the awards will be made on Republic Day and on Independence Day on August 15,” said Shrestha, whose father Gopal Babu also retired from the same 7/8 Platoon of the Gorkha Regiment around 29 years ago.
His regiment has already given him a cash award of Indian rupees 50,000, and decided to terminate his voluntary retirement. He will get the customary promotion after receiving the medals. The Indian government will also announce a cash bounty for him and special discounts on international air tickets and domestic train tickets.
The band of about 40 robbers, some of whom were travelling as passengers, stopped the train in the Chittaranjan jungles in West Bengal around midnight. Shrestha-- who had boarded the train at Ranchi in Jharkhand, the place of his posting--was in seat no. 47 in coach AC3.
“They started snatching jewelry, cell phones, cash, laptops and other belongings from the passengers,” Shrestha recalled. The soldier had somehow remained a silent spectator amidst the melee, but not for long. He had had enough when the robbers stripped an 18-year-old girl sitting next to him and tried to rape her right in front of her parents. He then took out his khukuri and took on the robbers.
“The girl cried for help, saying ´You are a soldier, please save a sister´,” Shrestha recalled. “I prevented her from being raped, thinking of her as my own sister,” he added. He took one of the robbers under control and then started to attack the others. He said the rest of the robbers fled after he killed three of them with his khukuri and injured eight others.
During the scuffle he received serious blade injury to his left hand while the girl also had a minor cut on her neck. “They had carried out their robbery with swords, blades and pistols. The pistols may have been fake as they didn´t open fire,” he surmised....MORE
With his khukuri knife he charged 40 low-life punks armed with pistols, knives and swords.
Killed three. Wounded eight. Chased the other 29 away.
A different approach to gang-rape from that evinced by, say, the South Yorkshire Police, know what I'm sayin'?
Singapore hires 'em as cops. Pretty smart if you ask me.
