True enough - Although some would contend that the annual Malay wargames are proof against (1), you're right. After all, isn't the joke, "The Singapore military only needs to operate for up to 7 days. Why 7 days? That's how long it takes the UN to respond!"

Singaporean culture and upbringing often results in two things, in my - somewhat limited - perspective: - we're often raised by what we can do, not what we can't. Obedience is rather well taught. - kind of stemming from the former - Singaporeans tend to be a bit more risk averse. Helps when you're trying to stem risky behavior - like crime and drugs. On the flip side, you don't get quite as much entrepreneurship.

Of course, these are merely observations. Feel free to correct me.

I'm currently living in Cleveland, Forbes' #1 worst city to live in. While I, personally, have a startup, I grew up in Rhode Island. I got motivation for the startup (freshbag - www.thefreshbag.com) from the local incubator (launchhouse). It's incredible what a good incubator environment will do to build buzz!

If you have the passion - perhaps you can start an incubator in Singapore near SMU (there's the LKY competition - 'near' being a relative term of affiliation. Good luck with getting real estate space there if you tried!), some of the polytechnic institutes, or NUS (although the latter has more competition). What do you think about that?

That being said, incubators take years to fully form. And you're a cat-herder, never able to really control everyone. On the flip side, you'll encourage a lot of awesome ideas. All the potential...