Lee Kuan Yew

[earthfriendly]

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sin ... l?cid=FBsg

the greatest things of America took place outside the system: not just in DC but in the universities, in business, in research laboratories, in local communities.

[earthfriendly]

I can't post the link, so I lifted the quotes. From Henry Kissenger.

One of Lee's strengths was that he never came cap in hand. I do not remember that he ever, in the many, many conversations I've had with him over the years, asked anything for Singapore from me.

Lee placed great emphasis on loyalty. When Watergate started, he was in Canada, so he called me up and asked if he could come down to meet me informally in New York. He wanted to know whether America's authority would be weakened.

What will it do to us? We spoke as friends, then he returned to Canada, but, shortly, he came to Washington officially to demonstrate that he would not abandon his friends. He did it partly out of personal loyalty, but he did it also out of his sense of duty.

But Lee did not leave her in the hospital. In fact, he insisted on taking her home. And for three years, he went to her bedside every evening and read to her because he was convinced either that she would hear him or that he needed to do it.

Lee Kuan Yew was a man of enormous sensitivity. .......

He did not always know if we understood or even heard him, but he believed in us. He believed that we would hear.

During those days, it was common to think that in that order to win some, one gotta give up something. Win-win situations was not much part of the equation. Therein sets the tone for many policies in SG, which has far reaching economic and social implications, up to this day.

At that time, it was conventional to say multinational companies become great or prospered because they exploited workers all over the world. Lee Kuan Yew said, "go ahead, exploit our labour". He said it in those words. He said "that is the way we can build ourselves up".

[maneo]

The discussion seems to have gone in a different direction since page 9.
Perhaps the last 2.5 pages should be split off as a separate discussion.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Done.

[earthfriendly]

Yeap, he was toooooooo impatient.

he had straitjacketed too many of his people in his zeal and impatience to build up Singapore quickly.

There was genius in them, but they could not move.

Too true. Each day as we mature and move closer towards the end of our lives, it is the people around us that matters. You have no need to win the argument or be more right than the next person. Whoever offers sincerity and earthly friendship.........

He turned to me and said: "Come to think of it, finally, it's only friendship that matters." -

http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/ ... xtor=CS1-2

[earthfriendly]

Given his brilliance and what a colorful life he had been thru. And the realization of his latter days. Perhaps this would be apt:

" This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper "

~ 'The Hollow Men', T.S Eliot

He turned to me and said: "Come to think of it, finally, it's only friendship that matters." -