Originally posted by stupidissmart:
[Quote]Surprisingly, Switzerland has
far surpassed Singapore in all fields of scientific discovery,
economic and industrial excellence despite the fact that there is
far more Government-Citizen consultative efforts on every important
'POLITICAL' issues that affect the Swiss Citizens.
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Swiss is much bigger, with a unique neutral position, have a long
history, starts off better than singapore in 1960s and have more
natural resources. Furthermore swiss is facing problems itself
now.
And if u wanna compare countries, I can also list many democractic
countries facing worse problems and poverty. 
Yes, Swizterland may be bigger than
Singapore in physical size, but much of its physical size is
useless mountain land, and itself being landlocked, cut off from
the sea.
Its usable land that is arable is no more than 250sq.km - about the
size of populated areas of Singapore {682.7 sq km of land - 10 sq.km of sea}
Yet, with a population size of 7,554,661 {2007} - which Singapore aspire to
have by 2020 {??} - Swizterland conduct a far more open political
system that allows the Swiss Citizens to participate in every
decision that affects their COLLECTIVE future in
honest and transparent referendums.
''Frequent referendums concerning changes to the
constitution as well as laws are the key element of Switzerland's
unique and well established tradtion of Direct Democracy.
More than 100 years of
experience with referendums on national, cantonal and
communal level have shown that Switzerland's system of referendums
guarantees not only a
maximum amount of self-determination to the citizens but also a
stability of the political system Switzerland is often envied
for.''
The changes made to the Singapore
Constitution has been done without the participation of any
Singapore Citizens, and have result in the Constitutions being
''bastardised'' to benefit
the perpetual rule of the RULING Political Party - by putting
obstacles to any individual or political parties that will dare
challenge the legitimacy to such changes, and claim the
Constitutional Rights that is guaranteed to all Singaporeans.
Compared to the Swiss model of democracy, Switzerland seems to have
a Government and politicians that are no less honest even if they
are paid less, and the citizens enjoy a participatory political
role that makes them personally willing to be responsible to defend
Switzerland and its system.
If a common denominator
can be used to measure the success of a political system that
generate human excellence - perhaps we can use the Nobel Prize
awards that recognise the human spiritual achievements in the
fields of medicine, science, economics, industry, literature, and
politics.
Looking at a list of Nobel laureates by countries, is it not
surprising that it is from countries that practise an open and
democratic system that is able to achieve excellent individuals
that are products of its political and social environment
?
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I think it is simply becase the developed countries r the one with
the research grants and they r democractic
Not all Nobel Laureates are awarded
for achievements that require huge fundings.
If you look at some of these great names, some exist during periods
where research grants are unheard of.
