Over a cup of tea

TWOsignificant events happened in Singapore during the last fortnight.

Thelady, to use a celluloid name given to Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi,visited the city-state, and Lee Kuan Yew, father of modern Singapore,celebrated his 90th birthday. We draw a parallel in thesetwo extra-ordinary lives in our section, The Fourth Estate.

Then,we take a hard look at the (in)existence of poverty in Singapore.Since poverty is an abstract and a very relative concept, it willtake some time before this debate is settled for once.

Asthe underlining theme of this issue is economy, we take a look at twoof the most important drivers of the country's economy inKaleidoscope section – banking and tourism.

Whilethere is no doubt that the local banks in the city-state hasconsistently been ranked among the strongest in the world, how wellthey cope as the government tightens its grip on them to curbcross-border tax-crimes will be interesting.

Anotherissue that has caused some concerns recently is the rising debts,both household and public. While the government's house seems to bein perfect order [a testimony to it getting the highest short andlong-term credit ratings from international agencies], worrying signshave indeed emerged in terms of household debts.

Wewind up the issue with an overall analysis of a report by theMonetary Authority of Singapore on recent economic developments. WithUS showing some signs of recovery, the government has raised itsyearly growth forecast to 2.5-3.5%, which augurs well for thecountry's future.

BeforeI end, a special mention of our story marking the opening of DolphinsIsland in Sentosa. If you're planning to visit it soon, just rememberthat those creatures have been designated as “non-human persons”by India recently.

Maybe its time for us to revisit our definition of entertainment!

Gaurav