{UAH} Want Your City-State to Become a Capitalist Success Story? Ban Spitting. | Foreign Policy

 

The governing philosophy of Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew contained multitudes: a belief in the enriching power of the free market; a development agenda implemented by a strong central government at the expense of personal freedoms. 

Alongside these well-known themes, however, there was also this: Absolutely never, under any circumstances, would there be public spitting in the Lion City.

In Singapore, anyone caught expectorating can be hit with a hefty fine of up to $1,000 and $5,000 for repeat offenders. That law is part of a raft of legislation that Lee put in place — on gum chewing, bird feeding, and flushing public toilets — that reached deep into citizens' daily lives and that remain a part of Singapore's legal code today.

Lee's strictures on spitting were designed to curb a habit fairly thoroughly ingrained in traditional Chinese culture. Here, for example, Deng Xiaoping meets with Margaret Thatcher with a spittoon in the foreground. The Chinese reformer was a lifelong spitter.

In the West, Singapore's laws on personal behavior are seen as quirky eccentricities at best and the mark of an invasive nanny state at worst. These laws, however, are rarely considered as a component of Singapore's much admired economic growth — but maybe they should be.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/24/want-your-city-state-to-become-a-capitalist-success-story-ban-spitting/?utm_content=bufferc5e68&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Brian M. Kwesiga

President and CEO,

Ugandan North American Association - UNAA

972.415.6372 | www.unaa.org | "United We Stand"