In the English tradition of telling ghost or macabre tales during the Christmas hols, here’s one on how S’pore would look like if the PAP gave in to populist pressure and stopped the FTs flooding in
For a glimpse of S’pore’s future, a good place to visit is Yubari, a former mining town on the northern island of Hokkaido, which four years ago went spectacularly bust with debts of ¥36 billion ($315m). It is a quiet spot, nestled in a valley at the end of a railway line … 120,000 people lived there … and there are only 11,000 people left, almost half of them over 65.
The town hall is like a morgue, with few lights on. In the past four years the number of civil servants has been cut in half, their salaries have shrunk by a third and they now have to mop their own floors, they complain. The town has embarked on an 18-year austerity drive to repay its debts. The public library has already closed down. This autumn six primary schools merged into one. (Extract from Economist special report on ageing in Japan)
(Update at 11.40 am: some population charts that Grey Hippo found)
Another X’mas season ghost or macabre tale
http://atans1.wordpress.com/2010/12/25/freak-election-result-no-worries-mm/
BTW, wonder if this will be picked up (and publicised) by the YPAP activists who are tasked to scout the Internet to counter anti-PAP stuff). After all sume of my stuff have found their way onto TR or is it NTR?
