America's Unraveling at Katrina a Puzzler in Singapore

Summary

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THERE is something troublingly self-indulgent and slothful about America today something that Katrina highlighted and that people who live in countries where the laws of gravity still apply really noticed. It has rattled them like watching a parent melt down.

That is certainly the sense I got after observing the Katrina debacle from half a world away here in Singapore a city-state that, if it believes in anything, believes in good governance. It may roll up the sidewalks pretty early here, and it may even fine you if you spit out your gum, but if you had to choose anywhere in Asia you would want to be caught in a typhoon, it would be Singapore. Trust me, the head of civil defense here is not simply someone's college roommate.

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Extract

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America's Unraveling at Katrina a Puzzler in Singapore

Indeed, Singapore believes so strongly that you have to get the best-qualified and least-corruptible people you can into senior positions in the government, judiciary and civil service, that its pays it...

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