Singapore teen blogger Amos Yee granted US asylum
I&#x27;ve been to Singapore once and find it to be a beautiful city&#x2F;state. That being said, as an American, I do find some of the policies a bit disconcerting as it reminds me of one of my favorite dystopian books, 1984.<p>* People love to talk about how bad Duerte is in the Philippines (he is), but in Singapore, 18oz of marijuana gets you a <i>mandatory</i> death penalty: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Misuse_of_Drugs_Act_(Singapore)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Misuse_of_Drugs_Act_(Singapore...</a><p>* Singapore is a 1 party system that has been controlled by the same family (the lee family) since what, the 1920s? It isn&#x27;t a democracy when there is one party, it is a monarchy, just call a spade a spade. It seems to work for them, but they&#x27;re simply fooling themselves calling it that.<p>* You can not legally import chewing gum into Singapore and there is a $700 fine if you happen to spit it on the street: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Chewing_gum_ban_in_Singapore" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Chewing_gum_ban_in_Singapore</a><p>* They very much censor media &#x2F; free speech. If they didn&#x27;t, this article wouldn&#x27;t be news.<p>* Littering or any petty theft can result in a caning, which depending on the severity, is split up over two days. This is to keep the punished from bleeding to death (seriously).<p>* Only the government elite can afford to drive vehicles. This is due to the taxes and registrations for even a 20 year old car being around 100,000 local currency. They force the public to use transit.<p>* They require iris scans of every citizen and permanent resident (as of Jan 2016)<p>on and on. Sure it is great and there is no crime and the economy looks great, but it bothers me the lack of freedom to innovate, to do something different, to be wrong. I can&#x27;t quite place it, but never felt comfortable there even if I&#x27;m safer in Singapore than I am here in Chicago where I currently type from.