We have close ties

This is from the article, My granddaddy Deng Xiaopeng, in China Daily (page 22) by Chen Jie.

A year later, she returned to Beijing and set up JoYa, a PR and fundraising company, with her friend Jocelyn Ang from Singapore. Their first project was a charity gala ball, an event she had become familiar with in the United States.

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Another type of foreign talents

This is from the article, One man's quest to find first black winner of the Tour de France, by Xan Rice in guardian.co.uk.

Nicholas Leong, [edited] a 40-year-old commercial photographer from Singapore, Leong has already invested nearly three years and tens of thousands of pounds of his own money in his quest to prove Kenyans can transfer their running success into the almost exclusively white world of professional cycling.

"In 106 years of the Tour de France there has never been a single black rider," said Leong, at the start line in Iten last weekend. "I am trying to help change that."

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Processing something we don't have

This is from the article, How Malaysia Can Cope With and Overcome the Effects of the Global Economic Crisis, by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in Lim Kit Siang blog.

Consider that despite having no oil resources, Singapore is among the top three global players in trading, refining and manufacture of oil and gas equipment.

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Are congestion charges considered incentives?

This is from the article, Drive and Cycle: An innovative concept for commuting, by RUSHTRACK in Ode.

Just recently the U.S. government even went so far as to acknowledge bicycle commuters as worthy of tax relief in a similar way that drivers are. Incentives, such as new bike lanes and congestion charges, such as those instituted by London, Stockholm, and Singapore, have set the stage for a change in the way the world travels and commutes.

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The short-cut approach

This is from the article, Cities of the future, by Stefanos Evripidou in Cyprus Mail.

Malaysian urban planning expert, Dr Goh Ban Lee highlighted two approaches to urban management. One is the building of integrity and social responsibility so you don't need CCTV cameras everywhere or even road bumps. “Like in Germany and Japan, though that took up to 200 years to achieve,” he said.

Or the short-cut approach: massive state intervention. Lee referred to Singapore, using the example of the American youth who was punished with painful lashes by the authorities after falling foul of the country's strict vandalism laws.

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Technology park

This is from the article, Cities of the future, by Stefanos Evripidou in Cyprus Mail.

Singapore whose capita per income was one third that of Spain in 1965 now has a per capita income 70 per cent higher than Spain after focusing on its own component of excellence. It is currently engaged in a top-down experiment called One North to create a new generation of technology parks dedicated to multimedia and biotechnology. The idea is to combine working areas with living areas to create a symbiosis between business ecologies and urban life, where residents, artists, venture capitalists live and work together in the same spot. By creating such an exceptional location, they hope to attract and retain diverse talent.

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Learn Mandarin and breathe [less polluted] air

This is from the article, Teach your kids Mandarin, in The Straits Times.

WHEN asked for his advice on how to survive the financial crisis, global investment guru Jim Rogers often tells his interlocutors: 'Teach your children Mandarin.' The 66-year-old financial commentator has practised what he preaches, in 2007 selling his mansion in New York and moving his family to Singapore.
'I am (in Asia) because this is the exciting part of the world. This is the future, and I want my children to grow up knowing Asia, and knowing things Chinese,' he said during an interview from his exercise bike.

Indeed, he said his five-year-old daughter is now a fluent Mandarin speaker.

He had thought about moving to China or Hong Kong, but decided against it because of air pollution, adding: 'I don't want to breathe Hong Kong air.'

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What works for us may not work for US.

This is from the article, Making rush hour costly, by Maria L. La Gang in ChicagoTribune.com.

America's second-most-congested city wants to become the first to institute congestion pricing. The goal: Reduce downtown traffic, improve the environment and raise money for further transit fixes.

A similar effort failed in 2008 in New York.

London, Stockholm and Singapore already have drawn lines around key districts and charge drivers for entering at peak times. London officials believe their original system cut traffic by 21 percent and increased public transit use by 36 percent.

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