Brigitta Vetter

Singapore transformed from a malaria-infested trading post into the world's fourth-largest financial center in just five decades—and free markets did every bit of the heavy lifting. When Lee Kuan Yew took power in 1965, Singapore had zero natural resources, rampant unemployment, and racial tensions that made Detroit look peaceful. Instead of following the Third World playbook of central planning and import substitution, Lee did something radical: he unleashed capitalism. Corporate tax rates dropped to 17%. Foreign investment flowed in without bureaucratic strangling. Private property rights became sacred. The government stepped back and let entrepreneurs build wealth. But here's what the statists always miss when they credit Singapore's "smart government intervention"—every successful policy Singapore adopted eliminated barriers rather than created them. Free trade zones. Minimal regulations on business formation. English common law protecting contracts. Zero capital gains taxes (still true today). When you remove the state's boot from the economy's throat, miracles happen fast. The results speak in the only language that matters: GDP per capita exploded from $500 in 1965 to over $70,000 today. Port traffic grew 50x. The financial sector now employs 250,000 people in a country smaller than New York City. You can start a business in Singapore in one day. Try that in France or Brazil. And before you credit "Asian values" or geographic luck, remember that Singapore sits next to Malaysia and Indonesia—countries with similar cultures, better natural resources, and dramatically worse economic outcomes. The difference? Malaysia and Indonesia kept their socialist policies while Singapore chose Austrian economics without knowing Mises existed.

🇨🇵 Die französische Europaabgeordnete Sarah Knafo an vdL: „Wir erwarten nichts mehr von dir, und trotzdem schaffst du es immer wieder, uns zu enttäuschen. Du wirst dich nie ändern. Die Völker Europas erwarten von dir nichts anderes als Ihren Rücktritt.“

As soon as the Greek Revolution of 1821 broke out, the Muslim Turks, in their efforts to intimidate the rebels, butchered those they captured or threw them to the ground and slaughtered them like animals. In some cases, they exceeded the bounds of brutality. In Patras, they captured a father and son, impaled them, lit a fire, and forced the other captives to roast them like lambs. Ali Pasha, in this regard, was more inventive: when he impaled Christians, he forced their relatives to turn the spit, threatening that if they refused, he would impale them as well. Immediately after the hanging of Patriarch Gregory V in Constantinople, the Turks also hanged three metropolitans in various parts of the city. However, one of them, the very elderly Metropolitan of Nicomedia, breathed his last before reaching the place of execution. After the hanging of the Patriarch, the Turks engaged daily in massacres of Christians who were trying to escape from the City. Then the Sultan sent a firman to the Patriarchate prohibiting the departure of Christians from Constantinople, making them collectively responsible in groups of five. This meant that if one from a group of five escaped, the remaining four would pay with their lives. Thus, the Greeks had to choose between the very likely massacre if they stayed, or the certain massacre if one of the five managed to escape. The revolution in Macedonia was drowned in an ocean of blood. Five thousand Greeks were slaughtered in Naousa, the rest were sold in slave markets, and the entire city was turned to ashes. The Pasha of Thessaloniki, Abdul Abud, who had set as his goal the annihilation of the Greeks, burned 120 villages and exterminated their inhabitants. Among the leaders of the Revolution, Zafeirakis was killed in Veroia, Gatsos and Karatasos escaped, while the fate of their wives was harsh; with horrific threats, Abdul Abud sought to force them to convert to Islam. They refused. The two wives were tortured to death in front of the governor's mansion. They were placed up to their necks in sacks filled with mice and cats, and the wife of Karatasos, before expiring, in a sack filled with snakes.

In 72 schools there are no white British pupils, and in 454 schools these represent less than 2%.