sg is a piece of shit full of itself spending obsene money on vanity projects

By any measure, Singapore's defense capacity is huge for a country of only 660 square kilometers (264 square miles) of territory. The prosperous island-state, with a 76 percent ethnic Chinese majority, sits between Indonesia and Malaysia and has been skittish about its largely Muslim neighbors since the 1960s. Singapore practices what it calls a “poisoned shrimp” strategy – it might be swallowed by one of its neighbors, but doing so would kill the neighbor.

Accordingly, Singapore’s defense budget, at US$6.9 billion annually, is nearly 3.5 times as big as Indonesia’s. Singapore’s defense budget comprises 30 percent of its national budget and slightly over 5 percent of GDP. The Indonesia Air Force and Navy get a mere US$494 million each.

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The crisis has shone a light on the revolving door that operated between Fianna Fáil and the construction industry. Under successive governments, Ireland became the plaything of a crony capitalism that neglected the public interest in favour of a golden circle of banks, property developers and state bureaucrats.

In its bid to attract inward investment, the country became a virtual tax haven, leaving it ever more dependent on revenues from the building industry. At the height of the boom, construction accounted for a fifth of the economy and house prices rose 520 per cent between 1994 and 2006. When the property bubble burst, the state was left with no way to finance its debts.