All About Overseas Education
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India as you know has been non-aligned since 1947. It's pretty much lepak in its own sub-continent after independence. No longer active in SEA after Srivijaya and Majapahit empires collapsed centuries ago after they were colonized by the Brits. \"The Governor of the Straits Settlements ruled the Straits Settlements from 1826 to 1946, on behalf of the British East India Company (1826–1858), the India Office (1858–1867) and the Colonial Office (1867–1946) respectively\". In a way, India (Calcutta, Bengal) was the EIC HQ to which civil servants/residents/governors in the Straits Settlements reported.
OK that's our historical links with India, plus the Indian Constitution/Penal Code, Burmese/Javanese/Sumatran/Angkorwat architecture, Parameswara, religion, Sanskrit language, culture, etc.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-an-early-believer-of-indias-potential-says-pm-lee-at-launch-of-book-on-their
After the 1991-1992 consensus talks were held between PRC and ROC, after the Gulf crisis, we quickly got the US navy to dock at our Changi naval base. PM GCT started cultivating \"the very lepak & isolationist\" India to drag her into the region to balance the sphere of influence exerted by both PRC and ROC, which were rising amid the 中国风 and getting very chummy with each other
It was around this time when top Indian scholars joined our top 5 JCs as students, as some of you might recall. They most likely became SG citizens in the 90s. More Indian talents came in during the 90s as IT consultants and IT support staff in offshore + local banks. I rem I was trained in MS Office software by Indian-Indians in the 90s. The 90s was also the time when we started recruiting Indian-born, but UK- or US-trained lecturers into our 2 local universities. They have already been naturalized and some of them even joined our civil service in the '00s. You didn't notice them as you might not have relatives working in those 3 sectors.
Now moving on to geopolitics sometime during Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping's handover. You might recall Hu making a trip to Melaka, talking about the greatness of Cheng Ho, etc? So this very shrewd strategist who came in the 90s to Singapore with his Fudan university debaters for the SBC Chinese Debate competitions was called Wang Huning, today's No. 4 guy in China. Yah, this smarty-pants drew up the BRI masterplan to court some naive SEA neighbours and African + South Pacific ones too. They are still upsetting the balance of power in ASEAN despite the pandemic. The son of Hun Sen just approved some MOU for a port->180-km-long Techo Funan Canal link, agitating Vietnam. Srettha, the \"busyman\" who's salty about Taylor Swift, is also trying to build a highway in lieu of Kra canal across the skinniest portion of Siam, with the help of China. Then of course you have read about those BRI ports in Myanmar, Pakistan and Malaysia (doubling its Port Klang capacity to rival our Tuas). And the 排华 militarist Indon prez-elect Prabowo who massacred many in E. Timor and Papua NG in the 90s is also kowtowing to China by making his first overseas trip to Beijing recently. He has visited Japan, Malaysia, but not Singapore yet. Hmm..
OK, existential threats. No doubt about it. Something needs to be done to check on the Chinese-styled Marshall Plan and Molotov Plan here. Heard about the domino theory in the Cold War. This is the new \"dollar imperialism\" as Stalin used to call the Truman Doctrine.
Back to the democratic though chaotic Indians. Why are they needed? Simply becos we cannot put all eggs in one commie basket which can punish you economically, as and when you don't get into the emperor's good \"neo-vassal\" books. Our local SMEs and local banks need to expand regionally, more so if they are often leveraged/exploited as \"whisperers\" and held hostage by the Imperial court to put pressure on our leadership, thus we need to look elsewhere where they are non-commie but have an equally large market. Today, India is the 5th largest world economy. In order to have a share of that vadai, we have to compromise by having some of their top talents (IIM, IIT) to come here to start up their firms. We have to keep India engaged in our region. If we don't, they will retreat to their cave as they are self-sufficient. I note the Anglo-Saxon alliance and the Indo-Pacific members are trying to elevate the status of Indian diaspora around the world.
That's the econ aspect. The defence aspect is important too. We all know that Japan+India+Australia+USA are in the QUAD with the tacit intent to encircle the South China Sea to ensure a strategic balance of power in the SEA contentious zone. (though India has recently taken a more ambivalent stance since the Ukraine war started. India is friendly with China's northern neighbour. (Thus, in its place in QUAD is now the Philippines, cos Marcos Jr is extremely pro-US)...
In the 1990s, you kept hearing LKY, GCT talk about Asia-Pacific, right? With the PRC and ROC joining WTO and APEC, etc., there was a period of honeymoon when focus was on Asia-Pacific. But some time in mid-00s, the master strategists here discovered PRC was up to no good in South Pacific Islands (2nd island chain), threatening Australia's (and to a small extent NZ) supremacy in that area. The Chinese are now aggressively cultivating diplomatic and economic ties with those tribes down under and below.
Against this background, \"INDO-Pacific\" the new region (顾名思义) which includes INDIA was born in this decade. Whenever you use Indo-Pacific, you're on the side of: the US, UK, most of western EU, Viet, Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Australia, NZ, Canada, and maybe Mongolia. Thai which is US strategic ally is sitting on the fence. So are Malaysia and Indonesia. Whenever you talk about Asia Pacific, you include China. Which was why Vivian when in DC kept saying \"in this part of our world\" (at least 5-6 times) to Blinken. He could not say Indo-Pacific, for he would offend China. If he used Asia-Pacific in DC, that's not the US bipartisan emphasis in this new normal.
Godzilla (the US) concluded it's pertinent and strategic to bring in the lepak Kong (India) in Hollow Earth, in addition to Suko (Japan) to check on Tiamat (China), Skar King (Russia) and Shimo (N.Korea). India is an important partner because it can help the Allies check on China's western border when there's conflict on the east. China would not want to confront a two-front war. If China stirs trouble in the Taiwan Strait, India will stir trouble in the Tibetan mountains. They are arch-foes. We need India to help check on China (& Pakistan too, which is China's BFF), just as China would get Russia and NKorea to check on Japan and SKorea respectively, if they interfere in the Taiwan conflict/1st island chain war.
India also needs to help us in Indo-Pac to jaga the Indian Ocean, the 必经之路 for those vessels carrying crude oil and natural resources from the Suez Canal and the Middle East to Singapore onward to Japan, Taiwan and SKorea.
How will China check on SG Changi naval base where the Taiwan-bound aircraft carriers are berthed? Look around your neighbours' front and backyards. 4th submarine is ready I just read. -
Did you just feed us a jumbo sized word salad that basically called Singapore a whore who invited 3 giant wolves into the house? :?
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Schootopia\" post_id=\"2132943\" time=\"1713622503\" user_id=\"143961:
I heard one thing not so good about them is how they like to bring their whole village people over. I don’t know if our govt is aware or just turns a blind eye to this practice.
This is the shocking eye-opener.
Singaporeans are actually being screwed by their own PAP.
I was very surprised to see India Indian doing HR at Goldman Sachs in Singapore and at least 2 India Indian HRs at Standard Chartered Bank, in Singapore. Also came across a Filipino doing HR at Dell in Singapore. Those were junior roles. Pretty sure there are more such HRs across the other tech and finance MNCs. These are not HR headcounts based in lower-cost locations such as Philippines or India. These positions are in Singapore, paid at SG rates.
Do you see Singaporeans placing Indians into jobs in India? Do you see Singaporeans in HR functions in Manila? So in the whole of Singapore, with all the bragging about NUS/NTU/SMU or even a poly, there isn't a single Singaporean who is qualified? Or your Indian India or Filipino can recite Singapore's Employment Act backwards in Italian? Your govt approved their permit to work in Singapore. On what basis?
In banks such as Standard Chartered in Singapore, you can even find entire verticals or teams on the tech side made up of India Indians. In most FIs, the tech headcounts are a cost, a liability. Why base them in SG when you can have them in India at a fraction of the cost?
Same situation in tech companies, IT services and consultancies. Widely known to many Singaporeans.
This is enabled by your SG govt right from the top. If you see the employer name against the Indian names at tech events, many names are linked to the SG govt - NCS, ST Engineering.
Most are not here to stay. They are just here for the money. International school instead of local school. Don't want red passport because of NS. Maid from India. Go Mustafa or Indian supermarket in Eastpoint Mall in Simei. Enclave in certain condos in the East. 2nd passport on standby, keep active during holiday.
In evolutionary psychology, there is an instinct known as tribalism. Humans are animals. A tribe is a social group sharing a common feature. Tribalism is the tendency to quickly distinguish members of ingroup from outgroup, and be loyal and favorable to members of your own tribe/village. This leads to tribal biases, prejudice to others, preference for selective exposure to members of the same tribe and active discrimination against members of outgroup. It is an ingrained cognitive weakness which works against dispassionate sound reasoning and scientifically-valid evidence.
You can read about it from papers like:
https://www.professormarkvanvugt.com/images/files/TheTribalInstinctHypothesis.pdf
https://cpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.uci.edu/dist/1/863/files/2019/10/Clark-et-al-2019.pdf
There is a lot to suggest that tribalism is at play:
* Korea is a tech powerhouse. Taiwan is so advanced in tech hardware and software that people say they have a \"silicone shield\". Do they suffer from an South Asian infestation?
* The Chinese are technologically advanced. They were using QR codes for payment before SG. Now, they are use palm scans for payment and transport. Do they suffer from the same plaque?
* The tech talents from Indonesia and Vietnam are young and cheap. Cheaper than India. Tim Cook of Apple went to Indonesia before stopping in SG. Why not Indonesians or Vietnamese?
* There are some real tech wizards that are Russians. So good that they can steal from the Americans. Why not Russians?
* In terms of quality, the cutting edge research, technology are from the States, western unis. Which piece is from South Asia?
On what basis? They are cheap and some are really good? There are more Indian CEOs and top executives in the US top Tech companies. Most are not here to stay? Singapore to them is just a springboard to US.
However, if one day, they are no longer cheap, Singapore may let Cambodian, Vietnamese, Filipinos replace all these Indians. 互相利用罢了 -
:offtopic:
How did we move from discussing overseas education to this?
I call recess! -
doodbug\" post_id=\"2132856\" time=\"1713352937\" user_id=\"13281:
Yes i enjoyed too. It gave some idea about the nus econs course, heavy in mathematics. This guy is from MI and from LinkedIn he is now a dydir in ministry. Impressive, considering mathematics is not his forte.
Thanks for sharing the link. I enjoyed reading his account.
He mentioned he went in thinking econs in uni is like at A level, more writing subject. -
Jus curious, are the big 3 nus, smu, ntu , uni application results out?
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Ongoing. My kid is still waiting…
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MyPillow\" post_id=\"2133084\" time=\"1714016515\" user_id=\"70594:
Actually, wouldn't it be difficult to compare university results since the exams are all different?
Jus curious, are the big 3 nus, smu, ntu , uni application results out? -
ChiefKiasu\" post_id=\"2133086\" time=\"1714016958\" user_id=\"3:
I think they are talking about university application results
Actually, wouldn't it be difficult to compare university results since the exams are all different? -
DS already received from all and accepted.
Think applicants can accept till May and is still on-going.
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