Tag Archives: scmp

A Songjiang University student advertises his girlfriend for 'hire' in order to afford an iPhone 6. A Chinese student is offering to share his girlfriend in exchange for cash in an attempt to raise enough money to buy Apple’s new iPhone 6.

Ms Lim first asserted this two decades ago in 1994. The ruling party had won the 1991 general election with 61 per cent of the vote. Ms Lim thought that was a poor performance and spied "a great affective divide" in Singapore between the government and the people. Since then the ruling party has taken Singapore through a number of serious crises relatively unscathed - the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, and the 2008 global financial crisis. In addition, it has won four further general elections by healthy margins. But still Ms Lim continues to regularly bemoan a collapse of trust and respect for the government.

We shall start by conceding the headline figures. Yes, as of the latest statistical releases, GDP at prevailing rates of exchange runs at an annual rate of about US$52,000 per person of the total population in Singapore and US$37,000 in Hong Kong, which puts Singapore about 40 per cent ahead, not just 25 per cent. The point about GDP, however, is that it is meant to be a measure of wealth.