I am reading here and there (not this AsiaOne article) that Feng Tianwei isn't a true blue Singaporean. To me, this is irrelevant. She carries a Singapore passport now and let's give her a chance to become more like us even as we pick up and assimilate the better qualities those like her have brought to us.
Maybe I am poorly informed here, but my peeve is why should we invest so much resources in enterprises where we have no natural advantage?
Large and well resourced nations can score well internationally in well defined competitions. They play the games (sports or businesses) that are already there and win. We should be niche players where we discover or create our games and find new customers. Switzerland and Israel are proximate models. Sim Wong Hoo was lucky to have a winner in the Sound Blaster but that luck is hard to repeat. He is likely to have been more successful occupying narrow and deep niches like some European SMEs have.
We are just too hard up for glory. It is a very heavy price to pay. I doubt it is worth it.
This is a real life example of what we could do. My friend's son is very good in Physics but he always lost to the best Chinese scholars at HCI. When he arrived at an Ivy League college, again he was beaten by some Chinese. He decided he would do a second degree in Economics, a subject which he won the book prize in JC. Result: Combining Physics with Economics, he bested the Chinese.
We need to create our own portfolios and markets. Therefore pursuing the Nobel prize with single minded focus as we are doing now with the Olympics is not a clever idea for a small country like us.
It does not mean we can never own or enjoy world scale success. We just might get lucky as we briefly were with the Sound Blaster.
Update: Aug 3.
This is good! I got it from Singapore Daily at Facebook.
Quote:
Online, one cannot celebrate the small little break through our country has made, without being faced with ugly xenophobic remarks. During the malaysia cup days in the 90s, there were Abbas Saad n Alistair Edwards, FTs, who had contributed to Singapore winning the Malaysia cup and there are also FTs in our football team, why are there no complains? Because Angmos are better and Ah tiongs are no good? Someone was damn proud of Mr Tan Howe Liang for being the "true" Singaporean who achieved the other medal. Eh...that someone, Mr Tan was born in Shantou, China, LOL! Another FT? What a messy FT immigration story! The truth is, we are all immigrants, my dad was from Shantou too! So what? We are such a young country, we only need to trace 1 at most 2 generations back to China, India, Malaysia etc. What is the big deal? Your father, my father, Mr Tan Howe Liang , Feng Tian wei, all chose this place to call home, and had contributed to Singapore in 1 way or another. I dont see any differences, why cannot extend some graciousness? Some question she comes here to dig gold then return? Its a hypothetical question until it happens. People are quick to point out the failed cases, but have forgotten her coach, Jing Jun Hong had settled happily here.
I think you need to specify that by world scale success,you mean GDP only.
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