Daily Lessons from Life 25 October 2017 - "Most powerful" Passport?!

"Singapore passport becomes 'most powerful' in the world

INGAPORE: For the first time, Singapore is the single most powerful passport in the world, thanks to a little help from Paraguay.

By removing visa requirements for Singaporeans, Paraguay helped Singapore edge out Germany for the top spot in a passport index developed by global financial advisory firm Arton Capital.

Historically, the top ten most powerful passports in the world were mostly European, with Germany having the lead for the past two years.

Since early 2017, Singapore has tied for number one position with Germany. But Singapore obtained a visa-free score of 159 in the latest rankings released on Wednesday (Oct 25), while Germany achieved a visa-free score of 158, according to the index.

"For the first time ever an Asian country has the most powerful passport in the world," said Mr Philippe May, managing director of Arton Capital's Singapore office.

“It is a testament of Singapore's inclusive diplomatic relations and effective foreign policy," shared Mr May."

I m grateful for not having to apply for a visa or visitation pass or permit or whatever to visit a foreign country. Especially when I totally hv no desire whatsoever to migrate to whichever host country I m visiting since I already live in the best country in the world by my definition!!

However does that make my Sgp passport the "most powerful" in the world? I thought not!! If there is another more appropriate way to describe it, it would be: "the most accepted passport by most countries without any entry requirement"!! The POWER is in the hands of the host countries n not Sgp!

So, let's not waste too much time over this "no entry requirement" thingy n recognise that the most powerful nation is the uno superpower, the USA. Other powerful nations r: Putin's "I can East Ukraine as i like" n "allegedly shot down civilian plane through incompetence"; the "OROB" n "Argued n I will send 20m multimillionaire to buy up all your real estate" PRC; n Fat Kim's "Do play play with my supposedly nuclear ICBMs"!

We r the most friendly country with more countries than any other single country. We hv our 1st world vibrant global city not so smooth train rides. Maybe that's why we go overseas n to more countries without visa!!

Tks for the convenience. I m not ungrateful.