Earlier this year, my good friend Daniel told me that he was to travel to Singapore and would love to see me there. He had found a great deal to go to Asia and I adjusted accordingly. This is the third time that I will be going to Singapore in 2 years but every trip has been a pleasure. Singapore the country is a fascinating melting pot of ideas, social engineering, propaganda and velvet gloved authoritarianism.

It is my third visit to Singapore. It was a chance to see old friends and revisit hangouts. During my trip here, I am reading through Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs. Right now I am at where he is coming back from study at the UK.

There is something interesting about this country and how it is run. The way that the country has become rich is similar in line with what Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and followed - export goods and services to richer countries. I was surprised to find that for all the branding that they do to make the country feel like a high-tech hub the majority of their exports are oil and gas. They built a refinery on a part of the island far away from where the tourists are and turn crude oil into gasoline.

At the same time, the government has socialized large amounts of capital and put it behind several key areas. Singapore Airlines is a world-class airline and the crown jewel of their economy kind of like how Samsung is in South Korea - except the government, through Temasek, gets to own Samsung rather than a single family. It is a portfolio of businesses that would be enviable for anyone. UAE and the other gulf states are doing the same for Emirates. Why did they choose airlines - or perhaps why is it that Singapore Airlines is now the headliner international company of Singapore? Perhaps it is because it is a globe trotting, consumer-facing company. Temasek also did not start off with the best businesses - a duty-free shop, a bank (DBS), some shipyards, and a bird park.

My friend who now lives in Singapore said something interesting. Back in the 1990s they increased immigration with the goal of hitting 7m by some date in the 2020s. The goal was to fill the country with a lot of white collar workers, knowledge workers. This is successful - the population swelled up from 2m to 5.6m right now. But at the same time, there have been repercussions. Some people got very rich - those who owned land that is now immensely valuable for example - but many others got left behind. It got a lot more expensive to live in Singapore - and the government responded to that, eventually putting brakes on the immigration.

Singapore is still a pretty expensive place to be, but I found its diversity to be immensely interesting. No matter if I was visiting a Buddhist temple or a mosque or little India, I found this little group of different people moving around together and living together immensely interesting. I still love visiting the museums but in my future visits I think I will spend time at the various parts of the country.