Piggyback Surprise
Originally uploaded by John McEvoy
Every adult has to give junior a lift when the kid absolutely insists on a piggyback ride.
That's the image that came to my mind when I read what Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew told the National Geographic magazine:
"I have always thought that humanity was animal-like. The Confucian theory was man could be improved, but I'm not sure he can be. He can be trained, he can be disciplined."
The writer added, partly quoting him:
"If native Singaporeans are falling behind because 'the spurs are not stuck into the hide', that is their problem."
It was the "spurs" and "hide" that made me think of piggyback rides.
The writer, Mark Jacobson, got some great quotes in his long interview with the Minister Mentor.
The man clearly needs no mentoring on how to write great copy.
He rates an A for describing Singapore so well.
The A is also for aplomb and adroitness in pulling off a very cheeky intro:
If you want to get a Singaporean to look up from a beloved dish of fish-head curry—or make a harried cabdriver slam on his brakes—say you are going to interview the country's "minister mentor," Lee Kuan Yew, and would like an opinion about what to ask him. "The MM?Wah lau! You're going to see the MM? Real?" You might as well have told a resident of the Emerald City that you're late for an appointment with the Wizard of Oz. After all, LKY, as he is known in acronym-mad Singapore, is more than the "father of the country." He is its inventor, as surely as if he had scientifically formulated the place with precise portions of Plato's Republic, Anglophile elitism, unwavering economic pragmatism, and old-fashioned strong-arm repression.
The last phrase is over the top, though.
Maybe MM Lee wanted people to read his own words, for the government released the transcript of the interview.
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