MORE SINGAPORE. I'm never drinking again...

Firstly - apologies for yesterdays silence. I couldn't find a convenient spot, with a convenient p.c., to log in. Am now sitting at Changi airport with about an hour till the flight home.

It has certainly been an interesting trip! Having often derided Singapore for being unbelievably dull I can confirm there is life after all. In fact it is going to take the weekend to recover. There were some old acquaintances from London in town for the same event and several beers were consumed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. The takings in BQ in Boat Quay must have gone through the roof, and the Post Bar in the Fullerton, which I think may be the most expensive bar in the world, had a great few days. Thank God the company is paying.

And they had certainly pulled out all the stops for this pan-asian conference, even managing to persuade Singapore's founding father (effectively) and guiding light for so many years, Lee Kwan Yew, to speak at a dinner. Sadly his speech turned out to be the not-very-inspired thoughts of a clearly old man, and the heavy sighing and breathing that accompanied the speech made most of us wonder whether we would inadvertantly turn out to have been there to witness his last, but he battled through and then did a Q & A session which was much more enlightening. He had three main thoughts which deserve mention.

1. The upcoming U.S Elections - He was concerned that failing to elect a "strong" leader would send a message to terrorists worldwide that the U.S. did not have the stomach for a fight. There is only 1 way to interpret that given that almost all the serious democratic contenders are openly either anti-war on terrorism. It is certainly not a point I have considered when thinking about the US elections, and it is a valid one. I shall have to ponder it once I have dried out before making further comment, though I expect Attila the Gun was straight on the phone to Republican HQ telling them to add that to George W's campaign slogans

2. India - Increasingly people are talking about India as "the next China" - i.e embracing capitalism and taking advantage of their low cost base to fuel spectacular economic growth. India has disadvantages in the form of religious tensions, but also has many advantages over China in thwe form a clear rule of law, a long-established democratic tradition, and english as an official language. This last for example has allowed many U.K. companies to transfer call centres and technology centres to India at huge cost savings to themselves. He did say India had struggled in the past through over-regulation and central planning. Coming from Singapore I think that is a bit cheeky at best!

3. Taiwan - China's position on claiming sovereignty over Taiwan is "cut in granite" to quote the great man. Now this I do not doubt. But I do wonder why they bother? They had the chance to take Taiwan 50 years ago and missed it. Now Taiwan is a rich, independant state perfectly capable of defending itself and also guaranteed by treaty to being defended by the U.S. also. China should just let it go. The boat has sailed, the horse has bolted and any other suitable cliche. Time to move on boys....

And that's about all I can remember. It's all a bit of a blur, though no doubt bits and pieces will come back to me over the next few days, some of their own accord, some through being reminded by others. I shall give a fuller account when my head is clearer and my hands steadier.

Now where's that bloody mary...