"Conversations with the 1st Female President of Harvard University who is into her 10th yrs leading the most prominent university in the world.
The question I m interested in is: how much of an impact Singaporeans have made on Harvard, she said that they have much to contribute to discussions there, especially on issues like how Singapore deals with traffic congestion, land reclamation and climate change."
Was hoping to hear more but only got these 3 points raised. So, a wee bit disappointing.
1. dealing with car traffic congestion
Get a lot of money from the buyers, keep charging for usage n imposed crippling import tax on vehicles, make it expensive so that it becomes a luxurious good. Of course, make public transportation so cheap, good n near most home?
2. Land reclamation
Thot this is old technology now as the Chinese, the Malaysian, etc. r all using this method to reclaim lands for productive use. The government is good at creating land value in through selling them after letting the reclaimed land settled.
Important to keep government land tenders high as it contribute quite as bit to the national budget revenue.
3. climate change
Besides the efforts to raise our land higher to prevent flooding of the whole nation, I m not sure we r leading the green movement. This is especially if compare to Taiwan n Japan!! We can't even get our diners to clean up after themselves in the uniquely Sgp institution: the hawkers centre! Most homes r not sorting out the waste to be disposed of. So, I m not sure how Sgp can contribute here.
Anyway, other topics that Harvard is probably interested in r: rich-poor divide getting bigger n increasing lack of trust of the government again as it showed disregard to the voices of the masses. e.g. do we really need a Malay EP n the emotional 30% water price hike over 2 yrs creating strong reactions from Sgp citizens.
As an advance country, I do expect Sgp to contribute a lot more in high class intellectual discussion at Harvard's level.
We can teach them abt "responsible free speeches" too.
The question I m interested in is: how much of an impact Singaporeans have made on Harvard, she said that they have much to contribute to discussions there, especially on issues like how Singapore deals with traffic congestion, land reclamation and climate change."
Was hoping to hear more but only got these 3 points raised. So, a wee bit disappointing.
1. dealing with car traffic congestion
Get a lot of money from the buyers, keep charging for usage n imposed crippling import tax on vehicles, make it expensive so that it becomes a luxurious good. Of course, make public transportation so cheap, good n near most home?
2. Land reclamation
Thot this is old technology now as the Chinese, the Malaysian, etc. r all using this method to reclaim lands for productive use. The government is good at creating land value in through selling them after letting the reclaimed land settled.
Important to keep government land tenders high as it contribute quite as bit to the national budget revenue.
3. climate change
Besides the efforts to raise our land higher to prevent flooding of the whole nation, I m not sure we r leading the green movement. This is especially if compare to Taiwan n Japan!! We can't even get our diners to clean up after themselves in the uniquely Sgp institution: the hawkers centre! Most homes r not sorting out the waste to be disposed of. So, I m not sure how Sgp can contribute here.
Anyway, other topics that Harvard is probably interested in r: rich-poor divide getting bigger n increasing lack of trust of the government again as it showed disregard to the voices of the masses. e.g. do we really need a Malay EP n the emotional 30% water price hike over 2 yrs creating strong reactions from Sgp citizens.
As an advance country, I do expect Sgp to contribute a lot more in high class intellectual discussion at Harvard's level.
We can teach them abt "responsible free speeches" too.
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