Aleksa's Book Review: Singapore in Transition

This week will be dedicated to the Lion of the Golden Horn: the city that binds and divides is well-known to us all. The work is a well-written tirade on the history and future of Singapore, sparing no detail on the minute details of Mr. Yew's life as well as how the famous littering laws came to be.

Lee Kuan Yew is essentially the driving force of this book as much as he was of Singapore. Around a third of the book mentions him directly as he was the boss in every measurable way during his lifetime. Maybe a little too much, for my liking - even though I commend the man's exquisite leadership skills.

Plenty of insight is given on the social capital aspect of Singapore - how little it gives to charity and community service, how competitive markets hollow out the soul of the community and what steps were undertaken to rectify this. None of what the book writes about is necessarily about governance directly (except for a few segments on how LKY consolidated power and pushed through laws) but delivers just enough to be entertaining.
7/10