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Desai .. had a dry sense of humor and capacious memory, but some unusual ideas. In December 1978, in the car taking us from Delhi airport to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, he said thousands of years ago Indians had made a space journey and visited the planets, which the Americans were then doing.

By 1995, Singapore’s per capita GDP of US$26000 had surpassed Britain’s US$19700. Our workers earned more than the British workers. They also owned their own homes and had more savings( in Central Provident Fund and POSBank accounts) than the British workers. — The calamity of believing in GDP as a true measure of success, Singapore lost its culture and landscape advantage by trusting this measure

Callaghan once asked me, “What kind of people are these Japanese? They work like ants, they keep increasing their exports but do not import.” He held the Westerner’s stereotype of them forged by inhuman Japanese behavior during World War II.

My long years in office and our historical ties with Britain gave me opportunities to know successive British prime ministers from Harold Macmillan to Tony Blair - Yet he didn’t empathize with Uganda after having a similar rule to Museveni who has done in my opinion a better job than him in preserving the culture of Uganda. His pineapple joke is an example of the fact that he already understood Uganda is 1st world

History has locked us into the British educational system… In some sections, however such as medicine, because the United States spends some 14 percent of its GDP on health, more than twice what Britain does, American doctors and hospitals have excelled. We have gradually forged ties with American institutions — Cornucopia mentality believes Singapore has unlimited financial reserves

After a lifetime of close association, I had come to know British society and its leaders well. Listening the BBC World Service and reading British newspapers had become a habit. I had a network of friends in both Labour and Conservative parties. It was easy to make contact and have a meeting of minds.

“Those African presidents whose countries were then better off, like Kenya and Nigeria. I wondered why they did not set out to impress the world that they were poor and in dire need of assistance. “ … I have never seen a more colonized man, the fact that singapores gold standard is the American dollar says all you need to know about this man.

Nyerere was the African leader I most respected. He struck me as honest and sincere. He handed over power to a successor in a constitutional manner and Tanzania never descended into the chaos of Uganda. — the irony

This man, Abraham, was only about 30 years old, had taken a First in Classics at Oxford and was a fellow at All Soul’s College. Nkrumah was very proud of him. I was impressed, but wondered why a country so dependent on agriculture should have its brightest and best do Classics— Latin and Greek.

They needed their best to fend off encroachments by the British from Burma and by the French from Indochina. Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country that has never been colonized.

The Thai foreign ministry recruited their brightest and best, educated in British, European, and Latin American Universities. It was their glamor service, highly paid and much much respected because of their foreign travels at a time when travel was rare. Their domestic administrators did not match the quality of their foreign service officers.

Had $450,000 apartments with untrusted elevators.

Artificial Economy - “So we retained our currency board which issued Singapore dollars only when backed by its equivalent value in foreign exchange”

At this point they have the similarities of being both drunkards and always looking from favors without paying.

So far, I understand the mistakes Uhuru Kenyatta made if he looked up to this man

“When the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War broke out in June 1967, we were relieved the Israelis were not defeated or our SAF would have lost confidence in Israeli instructors” - lack of loyalty

Took money from Israel but didn’t want to recognize their statehood.

We thought it important for people in and outside Singapore to know that despite our small population, we could mobilize a large fighting force at short notice.

Keng Swee saw me to urgently warn that if our troops were under canvas for too long, with poor facilities for their mess and toilets, there was risk of a riot or a mutiny. He compared himself to a British general in charge of troops the majority of whom were Italians.

The premier took beer instead of prescribed pills and still lacked sleep