Is LKY’s foreign talent policy perdition or salvation?

Did you miss out on this essay? Get it here when the “best” may not be the best – a study in the search for excellence

Written by Darkness of the brotherhood – If you are wondering why the word “Urban” doesn’t sound English, it’s because it has it’s roots in Akkadian, an ancient language that originated from the first city called Ur. Located in Southern Mesopotamia, present day Iraq – at its zenith 4,000 years ago, over 30,000 people clumped together to work, live and play in Ur-land.

Today prototypal Ur is universally recognized as the first experiment in city living. Ever since then, our species has continually defined cultural, economic, political and technology progress through their cities. City living is a linchpin – a peg – a capstone of how we as humans can best make sense of who we are and where we’ve heading in an ever changing world.

Cities have always been the center of cultural authority coloring the arts and sciences – a veritable lightning rod attracting – traders, scientist, play rights, philosophers, savants etc. Even these days in major metropolis like London, New York and Paris – one sees the same heady intellectual mix where Urdu mingles seamlessly with Yiddish and quantum physics sits alongside the same bench as the hatha yoga – that to me is not unusual: as cities remain for lack of a better word the clearest example of experiment with human material– that could account for why cities have always been the bed rock of cosmopolitanism, intellectualism, liberalism and pluralism.

As you can all see, I am not a great fan of keeping Singapore for only Singaporeans – that’s because that attitude smacks of small town mentality – which invariably breeds cosy insiderism, intolerance, secularism, fanaticism, parochialism, prudishness, false pride and stasis – in short, it’s good for nothing.

Fact remains nothing good and worthy of emulation has ever emerged from small town mentality – don’t believe me? Where did fascism take root? In a tiny hamlet called Bavaria where the movie the Sound of music was filmed starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer – only what Hollywood conveniently omitted was the hills were not filled with the sounds of music as much as yelping Jews as they were herded off to cattle wagons destined for death camps – as for Julie Andrews CEO ( who incidentally also came from a small town somewhere in forgettable Sicily), he was busy trying to earn his innings as Hitler’s pope – you could just as well juxtapose the same for the Klu Klax Klan a movement that originated from an obscure moonshine producing state in Alabama – my point is nothing good has ever emerged from the small, that’s because small is not beautiful; small just means what it means: small and probably good for nothing.

That’s one reason why I think the idea of keeping Singapore for only Singaporean is at best a lousy idea as what it’s likely to inspire may be closer to what we currently see in Pyongyang where everyone is smiling even when they’re tucking into tree bark congee and munching on mud pies; and when the pineapple eyed state in not snooping the hot topic on the table is hot air ballooning and tunneling – in short, the whole idea of small town, let’s keep it to ourselves and keep out the riff raff is predicated on a sobriquet dreamscape that holds out false hope – that great things can emerge from encasing ourselves in some memory of the past.

Here, I don’t doubt the converse of opening up may even mean Singapore may one day lose it’s appelation as an antiseptic wire brush state where everything can be counted to be straight laced;  we may even be fingered and resented as the enfant terrible of civilized living like NYC, Paris or Tokyo – notorious for their rudeness, brashness, crowds and moral turpitude. But what needs to emphasized is this doesn’t detract from the fact that may still be the best possible way for mankind to assert their cultural and technological primacy – to paraphrase, it’s not realistic to believe we can cherry pick only the good without having to take in the bad and ugly as well.

This only serves to highlight the complexity of opening up, or what I term the great human experiment. As it presents real challenges not only to policy makers but also many us who have to rub shoulders against strangers who may carry with them a completely different set of values and ideals. It doesn’t take a whole lot of brain juice to figure out what happens when you take people from all over the world – Kalimantan brides, Nigerian scam artists, British lager louts, American red necks, Bangladeshi expatriates, Mainland Chinese lamian cooks – and cram them all into a small place bordered by the ECP, PIE and SLE. How will they interact with each other? What are the possible outcomes?

I really don’t know. The stakes have to be high – where globalization is made flesh and we really are the whole world in one city!

And yes, we should admit this may also mean many of the problems of the world will probably wash up like flotsams on our shores. People after all carry their cultures, histories, religion and sense of being with them. And its not realistic to expect them to jettison all these baggages;  to exacerbate the complexity, they may even possess multiple identities – that an immigrant may not just be a knowledge worker but he may also a liberal, who likes to make chutney on his off days (that makes the whole void deck reek of curry powder) to send back to mummy & co somewhere back in India, Manchester United supporters and stir his coffee anti clockwise  – what no one can really predict is how one of those identities swallows up the rest to finally settle happily into what one ultimately refers to as “character” to complement the whole idea of nationhood.

My feel remains people will always be complex, and against this polyglot called the urban experiment it’s pointless to invest time and energy nitpicking on differences, you might as well go and plough the sea – makes far more sense in the long run to focus on the commonalities and what I term the calculus of reality i.e the decision to shift gears out smallville mentality may not even be a matter of choice. As this corrosive mentality not only promotes social isolation, it’s nothing short of burying out heads in the sand – as it nurtures the false belief we can take on the whole world with our limited human resources –we cannot.

That sobriquet dream would only command currency if you didn’t know every country in on this planet except North Korea and Burma is pursuing the same strategy of recruiting knowledge workers globally. Not even the US with its technological primacy would have been able to send a man to the moon without having to accommodate ex-nazi’s what more of a little island state in the tip of the peninsula called Singapore?

You’ve got to be kidding me right?

Written by Darkness 2009 of the brotherhood / Going where no mind dares to go / Brotherhood Press / Part of this essay has been extracted from “The Great Experiment Called City Living” / By Harphoon – Trajan/ The Brotherhood / Politics / Sociology / Econs / 23992/2007

(Extract from the Great hall sitting 903  / Presidium ref: 70392/ the age of steel – chapter 169 – the book of ages – the bible of the brotherhood – recorded by the chronicler.

His Excellency the centurion of the Presidium (Kadjal):

Gentlemen, this is not the first time the brotherhood has come before the Imperium to demand for money to prosecute on what I call madness of a kind that we have never seen before in our brief history; please allow me to recount the cost to the exchequer to date; 2 million Imperiums; seven of our best legions to finance the siege machine of this mad man and what is all for what gentlemen? – a tiny unknown port in the Andromena system that goes by the name of Prima Maritima. Gentlemen, allow me to quote what our pro-consul reported recently about Prima Maritima:

 “It is a black hole where they may even be only cut throats, liars and cheats of every variety known and unknown to mankind to be in this one place; and it is no exaggeration to say even the mercantile guild has given up all hope of conducting business with these knaves as all they seem to do is cheat and lie no end. I suspect their main preoccupation is piracy and trying to confect ever more innovative ways to evade tax – I can see no reason why we should even consider maintaining a garrison or even an administrative presence here – I respectfully request the council of the wise to consider this a black region in the virtual and to write off all our investments here with immediate effect.”

 So may I respectfully ask the right honorable gentlemen who represents the brotherhood why would we, the confederation even want to finance a war of attrition against the damned?

 Senator of the order of purple: Darkness:

Senators allow me to be candid, it is precisely because Prima Maritima happens to be a black hole where they may even be cut throats, liars and cheats of every variety; and it is even conceivable that the mercantile fleet may be entirely accurate in their assessment that we need to seize it as a strategic asset before anyone does – for it is well known in the universe no one except these people can escape the clutches of our tax laws with such impunity and even have temerity to hijack our mineral cruisers with such ease – on that score gentlemen, I am the first to salute them as they are worthy of our respect; but I do not wholly believe we may be dealing with a backward people here; backward people cannot out run our best ion powered cruisers; backward people cannot regularly smuggle elephant sized cargo without even leaving the slightest residue of electronic signature; backward people would not have been able to hold out against one of the well organized blockades for over 5 years without despite our repeated attempts to seek resolution through politics - I therefore implore the Presidium to reconsider the theoretical possibility – we may after all be dealing with a civilization that may even be ahead of us politically, economically, technologically and socially - against this theoretical backdrop this does not diminish my case as much as it lends it increased support as to why we must press on to seize this enclave as we may argue over many things that has been brought forth by his  Excellency who represents the Presidium of the confederation, but one thing remains patently clear: every single one in this sitting knows those who we cannot defeat, we must embrace. That has always been our way from time in immemorial then to now and I see no compelling reason why we should alter our ways: as there remains the possibility we may yet learn something valuable that we may not quiet understand from the likes of  even cut throats, liars and cheats.

Tell me gentlemen would the exchequer be able to levy taxes on the rest of our colonies and our protectorates if these knaves taught the rest of them, their weirding ways – my feel is we must the first the pen a dicta to ensure that they are with us or against us.

 This is how politics is conducted when in comes to trade in the virtual. Consider this carefully gentlemen what if Prima Maritima falls into the wrong hands – where will we be? The question therefore is not whether we should prosecute on this battle, but can we afford not too?

Some 4 months later, the recalcitrant port of Maritima capitulated and the keys of the city was reluctantly surrendered over to the forces of the confederation – by special dispensation from the council of wise. An emissary was sent to return the keys to Princess Soryanha with the words,

 “This is not an invasion. You misunderstand us. We come in the name of peace.”

On the fifth lunar year of when the penumbra passes over the Carpthanian plains transforming the sky blood red – a lone knight on horseback attired in the uniform of the order of purple appeared before the city gates; bearing letters representing the four houses of the guilds he could not be denied a royal audience with the keepers of the keys in Maritima who was then the Princess Soryanha IV of the Royal Persian Creche.

Though he was only one, the identity of this knight was well known to all and so feared was he, during the royal audience two rows of archers in full armor formed a ring steel around her royal highness – when the keys of the city was presented to her royal highness, she spat at it and asked for it to be returned to the lone invader who had once cruelly blockaded the port city of Maritima to which this envoy replied,

“You misunderstand us. We come in the name peace.”

This scene would be replayed for some 40 times with similar results – one day, this stranger did something unexpected when presenting the keys of the city this time it was tied with a flower – this was no ordinary flower, it was known as the Sintara Vitae, “the flower of life.” One of the seven wonders of the universe. One of the prized treasures of the brotherhood – this time, when the keys of city was presented to her royal highness Princess Soryanha, she took the flower and delicately placed it on her hair piece ever so carefully from that day onwards, the keys of the port city of Maritima remained with the royal crèche, its original caretakers – to which her royal highness Princess Soryanha, replied:

“Yes, we may have been too presumptuous. As this certainly doesn’t feel like an invasion. You may be right after all stranger…come sit with us and tell us more about your world.”

End extracted from pg 2,491 & 2,492 - The Book of Ages – recorded by the chronicler of the brotherhood – Sarhabath