James Baquet

This island city nation at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula lies just one degree (about 137 kilometers) north of the equator. Nearby to the west is the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and the island of Borneo (shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei) lies farther to the east.

Though the 177th out of 196 in area, and with a middling population of 113th out of 195, Singapore has been an economic powerhouse since its explosive growth from the early 1960s to the 1990s, when it was declared one of the Four Asian Tigers (or “Little Dragons” in Chinese) along with the Hong Kong S.A.R. (then a colony of the U.K.), China’s Taiwan Province and South Korea, which also boomed at the time. That east Asian miracle has since been outstripped by the phenomenal economic growth of the Chinese mainland.

Once the location of an Indian-influenced kingdom, the island on which Singapore is located had been virtually abandoned for around 200 years when the British arrived and colonized it in the early 19th century. After World War II and a subsequent federation with Malaysia, Singapore became independent in 1965.

Though small in size, Singapore’s population is incredibly diverse. Government leaders have noted that the people of Singapore have no common language, religion or customs. Here are some straightforward statistics: The country has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil (a language of India); three official scripts: Roman (Latin), Simplified Chinese and Tamil; several major ethnic groups, predominantly Chinese (74.3 percent), but also Malay (13.3 percent), Indian (9.1 percent) and others; and several major religions, including Buddhism (33.2 percent), Christianity (18.8 percent), Islam (14 percent), Taoism and folk religion (10 percent) and Hinduism (5 percent).

How does such a diverse melange get along? Well, among other social engineering efforts, Singapore has a statute called the “Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act,” which stipulates that leaders of religious groups must not cause feelings of ill-will with other religions or promote activities which would cause disaffection toward the government. Very wise indeed.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. used by all

2. mixture

3. disloyalty

4. demands, makes a condition

5. went past, outdid

6. moderate, average

7. bad feeling, hatred

8. dividing line between the northern and southern hemisphere

9. writing systems, alphabets

10. grew quickly