Singapore an Island in Southeast Asia

1166 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The relationship between Thailand and Malaysia

In 1802, Thomas Jefferson stated, "A spirit of justice and friendly accommodation is our duty and our interest to cultivate with all nations". Senior Leaders should gain pertinent information about the country of Singapore and the significant importance of United States and Singapore relations, because the military has shifted forces and structure to focus on the Asian Pacific area in the coming years. This paper will cover the background, government structure, strategic importance, and the future direction of Singapore.
Background Information
Singapore is an island located in Southeast Asia, and founded by the British East India Company in 1819. Singapore started as a British colony, joined the Malaysian Federation, and became independent in 1963. The island has a population of approximately 4.7 million people, and is located at narrow point of the Straits of Malacca off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. The main island is 42 kilometers long and 23 kilometers wide, with a coastline spanning 138 kilometers (Congress, n.d.). The climate is tropical and the terrain is mostly flat with scattered hills. The highest elevation is approximately 540 feet. Chinese makes up the majority of the population in Singapore, and the primary language is Malay. "Economic prosperity and political stability are associated with the national culture, as is the Singaporean concept kiasu which means afraid to lose" (Brogger, n.d.). There are five stars on the National flag of Singapore, which stand for justice, equality, democracy, peace, and progress (Central Intelligence Agency). Singapore's culture resembles several Asian values such as emphasizing respect of elders, and placing the country and society over oneself. Singapo...

... middle of paper ...

... Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved from https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RS20490.pdf
Jefferson, T. (1802, Dec 15). Second Annual Message to Congress. Yale Law School. Retrieved from http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jeffmes2.asp.
The Library of Congress. (n.d.). Country Studies: Singapore. Retrieved from http http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sgtoc.html Ranasinghe, D (2014, Feb 09). Singapore, the tiny state with military clout. CNBC. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/id/101393982
Singapore Economic Development Board (2012, Sep 15). Future Ready Singapore: Facts and Rankings. Retrieved from http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/about-singapore/facts-and-rankings/facts.html.
Wood, J. (2014, Mar 06). Is Singapore the next Silicone Valley? CNBC. Retrieved from
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101470869.

Show More
Related

  • Singapore, Mary Mann's 'Singapore And What Work Is'

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    Life is not always easy, at some point, people struggle in their life. People who are in the lower class have to struggle for a job every day and people who are in upper class also have their own problems to deal with. These ideas are very clear in Mary Oliver’s “Singapore”, Philip Schultz’s “Greed” and Philip Levine “What Work Is”. In "Singapore" a woman is likely lower class because she works at the airport and her job is to clean the bathroom. In both “Greed” and “What Work Is”, the speakers make the same conclusion about the struggle in the lower class. “Greed” furthermore discusses how Hispanics get a job first before whites and blacks because they take lower wages. All three poems deal with class in term of the society. The shared idea

    Read More

  • San Francisco and Chinatown

    2141 Words  | 5 Pages

    Gilded age San Francisco stood as a beacon for travelers bound for the western coast of the United States. The most prominent city in the developing west during the latter parts of the nineteenth century and the opening of the twentieth, San Francisco encompassed a range of conflicting identities. This time period marked a transitory stage in the development of San Francisco, evolving from a booming “frontier town” to a “civilized metropolis,” the emerging San Franciscan identity retained qualities from both poles of this spectrum. Chinatown, existing as a city within the city, shared this relationship of extremes with San Francisco. To travelers visiting San Francisco, Chinatown was a necessary stop. The writings in travelogues published during this period describe Chinatown through a mix of revulsion and curiosity, its inhabitants virtuous and sub-human. In short, within the developing city of San Francisco, an expedition into Chinatown remained a visceral exploration of a foreign and exciting environment.

    Read More

  • The Australian Labour Market

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2010) Employment outlook 2010 – How does Australia compare? Retrieved August 19, 2010, from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/14/38/45603025.pdf.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Cathedral And Singapore

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    The narrative of Carvey’s “Cathedral” and Mary Oliver’s “Singapore” shows the moment of enlightenment for a narrator and lady. Two different reading, yet the encounter of a visit and chance meeting transforms the characters. In “Cathedral”, the narrator is telling a story about a wife who had a friend call name Robert. The narrator, who also is the wife’s husband, meets Robert for the first time. He, judges Robert, because of his blindness. Therefore, the narrator feels superior over Robert. However, when the narrator draws a picture of the cathedral; Robert places his hand over the narrators. The narrator has an epiphany. The same is true for “Singapore.” A lady has a first-time encounter with a cleaning lady in the bathroom. The lady also

    Read More

  • Saeng Homeland

    275 Words  | 1 Pages

    It represents Saeng's homeland because when she saw the flower it had reminded her of the same flowers that were there and brought back memories of when she once had lived at Laos. On paragraph 5 it states “The familiar fragrance filled her lungs and Saeng could almost feel the light strands of her grandmother’s long gray hair, freshly washed, as she combed it out with the fine- toothed buffalo-horn comb,” which shows a moment that Saeng had remembered of her and her grandmother. But these memories bring pain to Saeng as she recollects memories of the land that she had left. As you could read in paragraph 7, “ A wave of loss so deep and strong that it stung Saeng’s eyes now swept over her. A blink, a channel switch, a boat ride in the night, and it was all gone. Irretrievably, irrevocably gone.” She feels upset at the thought that the great memories that she had can’t be retrieved or changed. The hibiscus plant represents perseverance for Saeng’s mother. On paragraph 25 Saeng’s mother says “ Its flowers aren’t pretty, but it’s strong enough to make it through the cold months here, this winter hibiscus.That’s what matters,” which would show that even though the winter is rough, the plant is able to grow.

    Read More

  • The Country of Singapore

    1415 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tremewan, C. (1994). The political economy of social control in Singapore. New York: St. Martin's Press.

    Read More

  • Singapore And Singapore: A Comparative Advantages Of Singapore

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    Comparative advantage means that an industry, firm, country or individual are able to produce goods and services at a lower opportunity cost than others which are also producing the same goods and services. Also, in order to be profitable, the number in exports must be higher than the number in import. From the diagram we seen above, Singapore is seen to have a comparative advantage in some services. The services are Transport, Financial, business management, maintenance & Repair and Advertising & Market Research, etc. These export services to other countries improve the balance of payment. On the other side, Singapore is seen to have a comparative disadvantage in some services. The services are Travel, Telecommunications, Computer & Information,

    Read More

  • Cultural Difference Between Canada And Singapore Essay

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    Confederation College can also train the people but that will include a lot of cost initially and it will be better to match Singaporean HR style with the existing HR style over time and slowly. Social and cultural factors Crime rate Singapore has the second lowest murder rate in the world. The security of personal belongings while traveling, the rate of snatching and pick pocketing is reducing every year in Singapore. According to a report by BBC in 2011, for 80 days there was no record of pick pocketing and snatching in Singapore (BBC, 2013).

    Read More

  • Singaporean Mentality Exposed

    3429 Words  | 7 Pages

    Film critics and audiences have dubbed I Not Stupid an excellent commentary on the education system and government paternalism. The movie stars three school children who have been channelled into the undesirable EM3 stream, and shows the trials and tribulation of these children and their parents. I Not Stupid has been described as a "coming of age movie"1 for its rare ability to criticise the government and its policies and bring pertinent issues to light, so much so that many are surprised that it managed to get past the not-too-kind local board of censors. This presents us with an interesting question - with its explicit references to the government and its blatant criticisms of government policies, how did this political satire get past the censorship board? Was it a case of the censors deciding that this sort of criticism was acceptable once in a while? Or perhaps the censors just saw the movie differently. At first mention, the latter might sound very unlikely. However, if we ask ourselves what the real butt of the satire is, we might begin to realise that there is a possibility that this movie is not intended to be a political satire at all. In fact, it is my contention that the butt of the satire in this movie is the Singaporean mentality, and not the government.

    Read More

  • Economy of Singapore

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    Using Singapore to debate has an interesting point of view. After it separation from Malaysia at 9 of August 1965. The nation became an independent state. Singapore was on her own, a tiny island lack of natural resource such as oil and rubber plantation, and on the other hand Singapore own a strategic harbour location.

    Read More

  • China: A New World Power

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ng, Teddy. “Rise of China’s Military and Economic Power Leaves the Rest of the World Wary.” South China Morning Post. South China Morning Post Publishers. 20 Sep 2012. Web. 10 Mar 2014.

    Read More

  • The Development of Singapore

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since Singapore gained sovereignty in 1965 from Malaysia, its politics has been dominated by the People Action Party. Under the leadership of People Action Party, Singapore has a “distinct political culture: authoritarian, pragmatic, rational and legalistic.” Economic growth and political stability were maintained by the People Action Party’s guidance. Thus, Singapore is corruption- free government where power is gained through skill and performance that attracted investments from other countries (“Introduction to Singapore’s political system”, 2011). Singapore scored the point of 1.33 in the 2009 World Bank’s governance indicators for the factor political stability. The government also opens a number of sectors such as financial services o, telecommunications, power generation, and retail to increase competition and foreign firms (eStandardsForum, February 2010).

    Read More

  • Papua New Guinea

    2071 Words  | 5 Pages

    Just to the northeast of the Australian northern coastline, lies a series of islands that construct what is referred to as the “Melanesia sub-region”. The tropical marine water of the Carol Triangle surrounds the Melanesian sub-region, and it extends from the eastern border of the island of New Guinea in the northeast, stretching to the southeast corner to include Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. Consequently, the Melanesian sub-region features some of the most enduring-undiscovered landscapes of our modern times. In the heart of the Melanesian sub-region sits the world’s second largest island – New Guinea. The eastern portion of the island of New Guinea along with the islands of Bougainville, New Britain, and New Ireland describe the geographic-borders of the Country of Papua New Guinea (PNG). PNG is located along the tropical geographic region of the Pacific Ring of Fire between 0o and 12o latitudes, where it receives rainfalls that range between 950 and 10,000 mm per annum (map). This equatorial location along with favorable natural and anthropogenic conditions allowed for a great number of astounding diversity of terrestrial vegetations to evolve and dictate PNG’s landscape. PNG’s landscape is dominated by multiple ecological formations, primarily forests that cover 78% of the total land area. Furthermore, the diversity of PNG’s terrestrial vegetations starts with beach grasses, on coastal lines, moving inland towards lowland tropical forest, and ending mountaintops alpine forests (table).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of One Vision One Identity, One Community

    1750 Words  | 4 Pages

    An economic powerhouse, Singapore 's highly educated and employed populace is vaguely reminiscent of a Western society, at least more so than Malaysia 's. There is no prominent, let alone state-managed, system of racial or religious discrimination. In fact, Singapore seems to go out of its way to make identity a non-issue for Singaporeans (Lecture 7), who seem more concerned about the influence of foreigners than about racial divisions amongst themselves (Lecture 10). However, I argue that the very act of attempting to make racial and ethnic identity a non-issue is in and of itself an act of identity politics. Singapore 's fastidious management and extensive urban planning, carried out in large part by Lee Kuan Yew and the People 's Action Party, is a prime example of identity politics at play in Singapore. Singapore 's architects designed the island-nation carefully, its small size putting a premium on developmental space, encouraging extensive forethought (Lecture 7). For instance, Singapore was made to be equally accessible to all residents via the mass-transit SMRT system, with no region more economically or socially desirable than another (at least in theory) and this in part discouraged the formation of ethnic ghettos (Ibid). Similarly, Singapore 's highly coveted public housing units are designed and managed by the PAP, and their ethnic compositions are carefully managed so as to be representative

    Read More

  • Essay On Singapore

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    Singapore gained its independence in 1965.It has been growing gradually and increasingly in the economy. I is now included among the world’s most competitive economies. This was made possible by being an public business globally, with a good business environment and a substantial political market, making it a popular country to invest in globally.

    Read More

More about Singapore an Island in Southeast Asia

Open Document