“People in the industrialised world don’t know very much about Singapore other than the trivial and the silly stuff like the banning of chewing gum and your homosexual laws” - Peter Schwartz, Chairman, Global Business Network

TODAY ran a very interesting article about Singapore’s image problem from Peter Schwartz, co-founder of the Global Business Network, a business consulting firm. Based on my personal experiences, I can heartily agree this perception to be broadly true. In fact, that much seems to be true of much of my personal experiences with people from the world over (not just the rich West), perhaps with some smattering of “Oh, I know a friend who got a scholarship to study in Singapore” to boot. (Yes, that means that I know friends of prospective Foreign Talents.)

It seems that Schwartz was involved in a discussion on how Singapore can grow along all sorts of cultural dimensions. That in itself is interesting (as it the lack of any further elaboration in the article), but what caught my eye was another quote, ostensibly from the discussion:

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