Someone has just mentioned Singapore comparing its economic development with some Arab countries. So, I felt I should add a note to an old post . Referring to a capitalist country with a small population – 2 million in 1970 and 2.4 million in 1980 when Singapore’s economic development was apace – is not a good way of comparing countries. “ Only 7 years after its independence (1972), Singapore had become a foreign investment magnet . More than one-fourth of Singapore's manufacturing firms partnered with or were owned by a foreign entity. The majority of the investors came from the United States and Japan. The country also achieved a double-digit economic growth rate every year.” For internal and external reasons countries like Tunisia (the one my interlocutor compared to Singapore), Morocco, Syria and Egypt did not enjoy such foreign funding. In 2022, Singapore was ranked 139th out of 180 nations by Reporters Without Borders on the global Press Freedom Index . Freedom
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51