Mark Meek's Ideas: The City Of The Lion

The name of Singapore means "City of the Lion". Despite being a long way from India, and having only a minority population of Indians, the name comes from Sanskrit. The name of Singapore is similar to the common surname "Singh", which also means lion. All Sikhs have the surname of Singh, but there are also people named Singh who are not Sikhs.

The name means "City of the Lion", but Singapore is also classified as one of the "Asian Tiger" economies. One thing that is certain is that, when it comes to economics, Singapore is like a lion and a tiger all rolled into one. It is near the top in both dynamic economics and the best places to live in the world.

Singapore had humble beginnings, as a British trading post established in 1819. But it is at an ideal location for trade, right at the end of the long Malay Peninsula. If Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore who has a hotel named for him in the city, went to Heaven, I would like to give him the news someday of how his humble trading post turned into a world-leading city-state.

By city-state, I mean that Singapore is both a city and a nation. It has no hinterland, just the city itself. Such a place should not, by logic, be any kind of a great city. It does not even have enough land to be a great city, much land has been reclaimed from the sea.

But what it is known to have going for it is some of the most dynamic people in the world. Singaporeans have taken a swampy island at the end of the Malay Peninsula and turned it into a contender for the greatest and most important city in the world.

Singapore was part of Malaysia for three years, but left in 1965. There has been inevitable competition with another of the world's great cities, Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur, less than 300 km away. Kuala Lumpur has the nation of Malaysia as it's hinterland while Singapore, being no longer a part of Malaysia, has no such hinterland.

But Singapore has one great advantage, that of it's name. The name of Kuala Lumpur means something like "the place by the rivers where there is a lot of mud". As one person who had lived in Singapore asked, "Which would you rather do business with, 'The City of the Lion' or 'The place where there is a lot of mud' "?

The name that has been most associated with Singapore is that of the late prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, who ruled until 1990. His son was later the prime minister.

Singapore subsidizes health care and education. It actually pays it's people to exercise.

The following scenes are in the central part of Singapore, beginning with a former convent that is now known by the initials CHIJMS. The first three scenes of central Singapore are from Google Earth.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@1.295236,103.8520966,3a,75y,94.62h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPQBtO-ev4tLO7S3TQyhGLbwgbIJu8PYmMZfAx4!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPQBtO-ev4tLO7S3TQyhGLbwgbIJu8PYmMZfAx4%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya186.62408-ro0-fo100!7i7168!8i3584

This begins in the area with a lot of Chinese businesses, known as Nagore Dargah. But more than three-quarters of the population of Singapore is of Chinese ethnicity. The first six images of central Singapore are from Google Earth and Street View.