Singapore - The Tiny LION of Southeast Asia 

I hope you like the video! Check out my video Languages of Singapore as well: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Di_tr0q_G4k.html

Great county to visit. Everything you want to see packed in one place.

One thing I learned from watching this video was that the Singapore government tracks the ethnicity of its people. From my only visit to the town/country many years ago, I can remember seeing a lot of mixed-race people (most of them really beautiful), mainly Chinese-Malay (with perhaps some European mixed in) and not so much Indian-other. My conclusion is that interracial families must be more prevalent than the figures presented in the video suggest and that mixed-race people get categorized as one or the other.

Such a gem. Thanks for the video Paul.

Always excellent videos on Geofocus. I didn’t know Singapore was one of the World’s most touristed cities. I love visiting there, and love to hear Singlish, lah!

l so enjoyed my stay in Singapore years ago. lt's one of my favorite countries in the world.

08:31 In Singapore.. we don't refer that item as Roti Canai.... Only Malaysian in Malaysia does that... Its called Roti Prata here...

Thank you for such a sweet video! :)

Great video, as usual

As a Singaporean, I congratulate you for producing an informative, factual, unbiased video, that about covers most aspects of Singapore Geography & history, the past 50+ years of success, and even include some interesting aspects of Singapore food and lifestyle. Nothing much I would add to this video. And it's good you do not deviate into arguments such as human rights, siding with US or China, which in my view, is not the intention of your Geofocus channel. Great job !

As a Singaporean, it would be cliche to talk about the same thing as anyone else, but I am more appreciative of our government being more clear headed when solving problems Other things would be - Cheap, affordable and extremely delicious cuisine - you can drink straight from the tap - electronics in Singapore are cheaper than in neighbouring countries (due to strong currency) - efficient public sector (little to no corruption and red tapes) - efficient public transport - super clean air - less censorship in entertainment - High quality housing - Cheap household items - low crime rates (you can literally leave your wallet on a public table and it won't be stolen) - Best financial service in the world - Extremely strong purchasing power - Public areas are clean - pedestrian friendly road system Etc

Great video!

cool video about Singapore Paul Singapore is also my other favorite countries my main favorite countries is France and japan and I hope you upload another geofocus video about sudan and south sudan :)

Absolutely excellent!

Thanks for the info! 😁

Great video, Paul. A bit surprised I didn’t hear the name Peranakan in this video, though.

Well done. Very deep information.

Singapore is a great and awesome country! I like your vlog. I just noticed an inaccuracy, you arrowpointed not the Causeway link between Singapore and Malaysia but the Tuas 2nd Link. No offense meant.

The life is great here. It is the safest and smartest place

Vídeo muy curioso. Gracias 👍

Another thought about the origin of the name singapura came from the phrase “singgah pura” which literally translated to drop by city (singgah=drop by, pura=city)…:hence the name sounds like singa pura (lion city)

Great video Paul. Have you considered doing some GEOfocus videos on subdivisions of countries? Places like Queensland, California, Sakha Republic, Mato Grosso, Yukon, Qinghai, etc. I think it would be really interesting. Lol there are only so many countries in the world that you can cover, eventually you'll run out! 👍

Despite being so close to the equator, high population of density, "winner-takes-all" system, etc., still - for some reasons - looks like a livable city.

What I appreciate about Singapore is their policy on litter bugs.

Wow this is interesting As for me a fellow Singaporean to learn more about my country

As a Singaporean, what intrigues me most is that I live on an island-city-state that 57 years ago was kicked out of the Federation of Malaya to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune in order to teach our "intractable" Prime Minister a lesson in humility (and the supremacy of the Malays in the Federation). And after a few years wandering in the wilderness of independence as a small, resource-poor, independent nation, and facing abject poverty, Singapore would be forced to crawl back to the Federation, hat in hand, and BEG to be re-admitted into the Federation... on the Federation terms (which will probably include a life time ban on Lee Kuan Yew from the post of Prime Minister.) Instead, Singapore prospered. And surpassed Malaysia. HOW? @4:50 the video tries to offer a short list of some of the more important "factors" for Singapore's success. And I agree all those contribute to Singapore's success. But behind those factors were the pre-cursors of those factors. I am still intrigue by how such a small, insignificant island can punch above its weight. One answer was that we chose good leaders, like Lee Kuan Yew. I think that gets it backwards. When Singapore was ejected from the Federation, Lee could have thrown his hands up in the air, and left. He was a trained lawyer, and he could have plied his trade anywhere in the British Empire (even as it was diminishing). And prospered. Instead he chose to dig in and fight and work for Singapore. Why? Who knows? Anyway, someone asked Tommy Koh, our Ambassador-at-large (IIRC), what was the secret of Singapore's Success. He asked 50 thought leaders. Those 50 wrote essays. Tommy Koh collected, edited, and compiled them into a book.

You should do more videos about cities,like the ones you made about São Paulo and Hong Kong(and now technically Singapore). My suggestions are New York and Istanbul

This sounds like an awesome place !!!!

Lee Kuan Yew was able to carry out his vision unapposed so progress was rapid and unhindered.

Thanks for the video! I enjoyed it. As a Singaporean, there's definitely good and bad living here, but so does everywhere else. I think that not really spoken about, or misunderstood is that Singapore actually has a very good social security net for the poor. The fact is that you'll never go hungry or be shelter-less in Singapore, and you'll never have hospitals (public) ones turning you away. The poor are actually very well supported. Most of the time, it's the mid - lower income families that feels more of a squeeze.

July 2nd was my birthday so as a gift it would be cool to see you experiement with long form content

Singaporean here. Though I complain a lot, like most Singaporeans do, I do think this is one of the most liveable places in the world. Consistent weather, safe, housing (though quality if housing these days is debatable), meritocracy etc.

not sure if anyone else has pointed it out but there are 2 bridges linking Singapore with Malaysia, the arrow does not point to Causeway, it points to Tuas Second Link. the Causeway is up north. just above Woodlands as marked on the map.

Use to be a guy that keep complaining about the government and now I in early 50 plus after travelling 15-20 countries I can say they did a good job (not great) , in the meantime we have a strong government but we cannot given them over power to rules that will cause when the leader make a wrong decision like .......... Stay humble and do more travelling you will found out how blessed we are :😀

0:59 Greeks be like: "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"

thanks for talking about my country

I have a T-shirt that states "Singapore is a fine city" and then goes on to list all the fines you can get there, including "urinating in a lift", which evidently is an issue in Singapore.

It’s so warm there 🥵

I was certainly glad that they have air conditioning! When you leave a building and go into the street, the heat hits you like a wall.

Correction: 0:44. The causeway is the road up North, near the label Woodlands. The arrow you pointed to is called the 2nd Link, which is a bridge. There are 2 connections between Singapore and Malaysia.

I lived in Singapore for six years. Great place to live, work and raise a family. Aside from housing, the country is rather affordable. The hawker stalls offer inexpensive, quality food and the public transit (MRT, buses and taxis) is second to none. I've lived in seven countries and visited over fifty, Singapore offers the best quality of life.

Great Video . I'm a South African and visited Singapore a couple times on Business meets. The integration of the different ethnics is really beautiful. Only downside of this video is the graphics. It feels as a basic PPT being read in a classroom

👍🏼Malaysia 👍🏼Indonesia 👍🏼Singapore Strong together.

0:42 Singapore is connected to Malaysia mainland by 2 causeways, instead of one as mentioned. The video mentioned causeway (since 1998 which is named as Second Link Bridge) is the newer of the twos. The old and real Causeway (since 1924) is at Woodlands, as shown in the white line in the map.

As a Singaporean, I don't really like how we are forced to do school at higher levels every year which makes subjects like math one of the mist disliked.

I have travelled quite a lot to Singapore in the past and may I express that Singapore is one of the best countries I have ever travelled to. In my opinion, due to the fact that past government policies were implemented with not so much difficulty in such a small territory. I don't think they'd have achieved all that in few decades if Singapore was the size of Brazil or China.

I hear Singapore is crazy rich

Singapore is the richest Asian country 🇸🇬

Thanks for your videos! I do have a suggestion for you: watch the pieces where you speak to the camera and put it on mute. Notice your hand movements; I think you can have less hand movements as it has a consistent and mostly irrelevant pattern and can be very distracting.

We have a very good government. Improve on it don’t change for changing sake. Change to bad one…the country collapses. p.s My estate government flats(HDB flats) looks like brand new even after 35yrs+ Why? Well maintain & repaint every 5 to 7 years. 5yrs ago they (government) added an extra lifts for every blocks in the estate. Free of charge. Recently upgraded every individual home including full renovation of the toilets. Subsidised fee. Over 90% of household own their own home. Which country do that?

I really appreciate your effort for bridging different cultures.l'm one of your fans from Iran and watch and enjoy your precious videos and kill two birds with one stone😊improving my English fluency and more familiarity with different countries and cultures.❤❤❤

Yes, the operative word here is TINY!

At 0:45, the man-made Causeway is pointed wrongly. That's the Tuas second link.

I a Singapore 🇸🇬.. few of Singapore have kampong spirit 🍜 give food at neighbors Most of this is from dad , mom teaching 50s 70s .. sometimes Singapore have their old places most of it in Malay name 🏚️🏚️🏚️ our family like to talk about this Everything looks like jungle 🌳🌴🌴 One thing about Singapore there's no TV 📺 , everywhere you go no TV no seats no design 💡💡🏮 something like modern .. couture only in streets , expensive Vs cheap

The causeway should be on the north side! You have pointed out the bridge

Paul, you haven't talked about the religion of the country

Me as a Greek hearing the word "Malacca"😏

At 8:31, you referred to 'Roti Canai'; how unfortunate! We call it 'Roti Prata'. Good video, though.

I learned why there are many Indians in Singapore.

Never seen a single homeless person in Singapore, at least right now very little need for a social safety net/minimum wage. People are already paid well in a flourishing job market.

still watiing for the government to change the ethnic demographic to -25% malays - 25% chinese - 25% indians - 25% other

I have always been curious about Singapore's pseudo-democracy. I watched analyses here on RU-vid and I've read several articles. It seems that Singapore is sort of a dictatorship that tries to woo public consent. On the upside they have great stability and policy consistency which is something investors adore. On the downside personal freedom and rights are very limited. Like in many Far Eastern societies, the individual is entirely subordinate to the well-being of the community. That can be very stifling and it has been found to stifle innovation, even the innovation that could be useful to the economy. The government also has a habit of making some people "disappear". It is certainly a better country than PRChina or Russia and it is economically far more successful. It is probably even better than South Korea which is a full democracy but so conservative that it can feel like an authoritarian regime at times. That said, if I were to choose to live in the Far East, I would probably choose Taiwan and not just because it recognises LGBT+ rights.

i very happy alone

Nitpick. At 6:03 Singapore Botanical Gardens. It's the "Singapore BOTANIC Gardens". At 8:31, "Roti Canai" is what Malaysians call it. We (Singaporeans) call it "Roti Prata"! (And we are very miffed that some stupid website - Taste Atlas, I think - declared Roti Canai the best bread, and Roti Prata was 12th or something. When the two are practically the same!) Okay. To be fair, I get the name of the Botanic Gardens wrong too! After all, it is "The Singapore Zoological Gardens" not the "Zoologic Gardens". But the Roti Canai thing.... But seriously, I have watched quite a few videos on Singapore, made by non-Singaporeans, and I am often irked by mispronunciation of local names or words. I realised I was not irked by this video. "Temasek", "Bukit Timah", "Srivijaya", "Majapahit", were all correctly pronounced (or rather, correct IMHO). Since I am nitpicking, I should also note the good stuff. Another video I watched confused the position of UMNO (Malay Malaysia), and PAP (Malaysian Malaysia). This video got it right. At 10:10 comes the usual political criticism of Singapore. It's too complicated to go into details, so let's take the implied criticism of nepotism from 10:18 - That Singapore has had only 3 prime ministers since 1965 (actually since 1959. Lee Kuan Yew was Prime Minister of a self-governing Singapore while still a British Colony.) So... what's the issue? Let's take Malaysia. They have had 10 Prime Ministers (9 distinct ones, with an "encore" performance by the 4th one as the 7th.) In the almost 60 years from 1965 til today, how has Malaysia progressed? In 1965, their GDP per capita was US$325. By 2023, after 10 PMs, it is approximately, US$12,000. Pretty good, eh? Singapore's Per Capita GDP in 1965 was US$517. Today, after just 3 PMs, it is over $82,000. Surpassing even the US ($76,000). So.... the takeaway from this is??? Excessive prime ministers retards economic growth? 🙂 No. My point is that Singapore's political leaders have delivered. And delivered. And delivered. Every time. And every election, the voters endorse them by voting them back into power. And so, over nearly 60 years, the PAP has delivered, and the people have voted them back into power. But "Democracy" somehow needs to cast aspersions, or make innuendoes about unbroken one-party rule, and hints about nepotism. But President George H. W. Bush and his son President George W. Bush...? But let me answer the question you posed at the end, before I forget. How do I feel about life in Singapore? I feel incredibly lucky and blessed to live in a country run by a competent pragmatic govt. I am glad Singapore is a safe place (low crime). That buses and trains run on time. That things here just works. That people here have a good chance to reach their full potential, and their full life. The same old unthinking criticisms of Singapore gets tired very fast. In 2015, just after the passing of Lee Kuan Yew, the criticisms were revived. This rant/diatribe/retort was one result: singapore2b.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-same-old-criticisms-of-singapore.html It is meant for Singaporeans, so do not feel like you need to read it all. Or at all. But let me again say that I enjoyed the video. It is one of the better ones. You did your research and your "homework" (pronunciation). Yeah, I had some issues (above), but it does not detract from your good work. Thank you.

It's surprising that there is a racial quota because my father, who is an Indonesian citizen of Chinese descent, used to work in Singapore; Chinese Indonesians have been assimilated into Indonesian society that we are faintly aware of Chinese culture. This begs the question: what "race" did he belong to in Singapore? On another note, I've been to Singapore a lot of times and I was surprised that the people there speak English, given that I speak English more fluently than I do in my native language, to the point that I sound like a foreigner with trying to speak Indonesian.😅

Paul, you missed out an important part of Singapore that makes it famous - COE or Certificate of Entitlement. The prices that people pay for this piece of paper to buy a car are unbelievable expensive! Even Van Diesel was shocked to learn of the amount!

One-party dictatorship works, for some

That country should buy Indonesians island to be bigger. They should make an offer to them

I heard from some locals there, if you are not Chinese, you will get discriminate. Which is sad considering the malay is the aboriginal. It somehow gives the same vibe of white people claiming Australia and the US as their land instead of aboriginal and treated them subtlety bad.

the lion represents something................for the chinese at least, i do not think that it was the indians whom coined this word,though,,for the chinese has more " connnection " to the symbol of a lion.than does the indians culturally wise. it is mystic connection ya see.

We have a efficient government but some of the worst attitude drivers in the world. And we really have a disregard for keeping our environment clean, it’s the army of foreign cleaners that we employed who are maintaining our clean image. Also there’s the elitist mentality, groomed into us through our education system, remain a fixture on the highly educated portion of our population. Other than that, it’s a great place to call home 😉

As a Singaporean, I feel that life is decent and sustainable until inflation arrives.

I thought Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea is the 4 Asian Little Dragons while the 4 tigers are Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and (I forgot the fourth)

Lion 🦁 once roam Singapore in the late 1800s

I have conflicted views on Singapore. Pros: it is a well developed country. Nice climate etc. Cons: it is a colonized island. First by British and then Chinese. Ethnic Malays are only a tiny portion of demographics and being discriminated in their own homeland especially in jobs due to language requirements such as Chinese knowledge. I wonder if Vancouver is on the path to be a new Singapore. Also history proved that Malay federation was wise to kick Singapore out of union. Otherwise they would likely have lost the entire Malaysia to Chinese.

Anyone know why the Peoples’ Action Party uses the Flash and Circle as its symbol when that symbol was solely associated with the British Union of Fascists and later Bulgarian fascists up to that point?

it feels like such an oppressive country that hides its flaws behind a veneer of pretty architecture and big economic numbers

Roti Prata not Roti Chanai

where groceries and food is concerning,there are other cities around asia,middle east and africa,which is far more expensive than in singapore also,you do not know it.but....the portuguese,helped the british in bringing in rubber seeds from brazil to south east asia,which helped to make a lot of "baron of rubber plantation and that is why many in that country got rich,because of this.

Singapore is amazing it's the little country that could. The only truly benevolent dictator in the mold of a Marcus Aurelius or a philosopher king the 20th century had. If only it embraced the imperial measurement system.

Thamilan make

Life suck in Singapore and its people are highly stressed due to its competitive nature !!!

It’s a great mistake to think that our founding PM Mr Lee Kuan Yew was a dictator or his political party is ruling by dictatorship. Sg has no resources, no hinderland and yet on 09 Aug 1965 independence announcement night , Mr Lee Kuan Yew against all odds promised “Singapore will survive!”. He is wise, bold, a great visionary and strategist with superb political foresight. He needed a tight fist and garner the people’s trust to deliver his promises. He spent his life building and guarding Sg and it’s future. He delivered his promises year after year. Sg not only survived but had also transformed from 3rd world to 1st world. Which is why the PAP has been returned to power at every election in them last 57 years. The ruling party has been a good steward for the country and its future and always planning forward 30 - 50 years ahead. All over the world where to find such a govt that does this? So please swallow your word on “dictatorship”.

It's all LEE KUAN YEW 🙏🙏

Because it is a tiny country, that country is well off

im waiting for Uncle Roger to come here and make a joke or two playfully shitting on Singapore

The country of pigeon hole flat.

Good country, bad dictâtor leader

As usual your geography videos lacks critical thinking.

why do you keep using third world country? That's a very derogative term, invented in the 50s. #StopSayingThirdWorldCountry

Singapure is a prison.

Well balanaced narrative.. I did not know about segregation in housing according to nationality! Once the world liberalises, these enclaves of free markets which survive only because of restrictions in other neighbourinfg economies will lose their power. that is my hope.