TWO
significant events happened in Singapore during the last fortnight.
The
lady, to use a celluloid name given to Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi,
visited the city-state, and Lee Kuan Yew, father of modern Singapore,
celebrated his 90th birthday. We draw a parallel in these
two extra-ordinary lives in our section, The Fourth Estate.
Then,
we take a hard look at the (in)existence of poverty in Singapore.
Since poverty is an abstract and a very relative concept, it will
take some time before this debate is settled for once.
As
the underlining theme of this issue is economy, we take a look at two
of the most important drivers of the country's economy in
Kaleidoscope section – banking and tourism.
While
there is no doubt that the local banks in the city-state has
consistently been ranked among the strongest in the world, how well
they cope as the government tightens its grip on them to curb
cross-border tax-crimes will be interesting.
Another
issue that has caused some concerns recently is the rising debts,
both household and public. While the government's house seems to be
in perfect order [a testimony to it getting the highest short and
long-term credit ratings from international agencies], worrying signs
have indeed emerged in terms of household debts.
We
wind up the issue with an overall analysis of a report by the
Monetary Authority of Singapore on recent economic developments. With
US showing some signs of recovery, the government has raised its
yearly growth forecast to 2.5-3.5%, which augurs well for the
country's future.
Before
I end, a special mention of our story marking the opening of Dolphins
Island in Sentosa. If you're planning to visit it soon, just remember
that those creatures have been designated as “non-human persons”
by India recently.
May
be its time for us to revisit our definition of entertainment!
Gaurav