Maybe true, I was objecting more to the application of one stereotype to the whole of south east Asia. Singapore is easily comparable to London as a developed, modern, cosmopolitan city, and London itself is head and shoulders above most of the rest of the UK.
What a load of fucking bollocks you talk trance.
THERE IS THIS MYTH that Singapore is a rich country and its citizens are well-taken care of. Nothing could be further from the truth. The 1998 United Nations Human Development Index showed that Singapore ranked 28 on the list behind countries like Barbados and Malta.
The following is a snapshot of some of the more recent cases uncovered:
•A 96-year-old woman has to go to the garbage dump to pick out odds and ends to sell to support herself.
•A technician lost his job and had no income for about half a year had to watch his two young children live on biscuits for days. A social worker said that the man had no money even to take the bus to find a job. The family was literally penniless.
The reason why the poor in Singapore are not more visible is that the Ministry of Community Development and Sports conduct frequent raids through its Destitute Persons Service, looking for and picking up vagrants. If Singapore seems to have less destitute, it is not because the numbers are not present. The real reason is that the PAP Government is just much more efficient in clearing the streets of homeless people.
http://yoursdp.org/index.php/truth-about/poverty-in-singapore