Another factor: Safety - I doubt there is a safer country than Singapore.
As for the educational system, university is very expensive. Schools are free and yes they claim to be very good on academic scores. What they don’t tell you is they still do caning in public schools (boys only). Still stuck in the fifties. The educational system largely focuses on academic strength and if you are not academically strong you get put into a second tier system very quickly. Kids as young as 8 have exams and suffer from exam stress early in their life.
So yes, Singapore is an iron fisted, draconian police state, not much better than their Chinese neighbours.
Source: I live here.
Yes, there is caning, but only for very serious offences. They no longer cane kids just for being late (which was done to Lee Kuan Yew, though he mentioned in his memoir that "it never did me any harm").
Homosexuality is technically illegal (to be precise, the act of sex between men), but it is rarely enforced and most people don't mind it, especially the younger generation which tend to support LGBT strongly.
Not that long ago it was in many parts of the west too. Could get you fired from work, There were still gays in both places of course, both closeted and people everybody knew they were gay.
Hell, up until the 60s there was seggregation of blacks and whites.
I lived in Singapore for over 10 years and have 3 kids. Singapore is incredibly safe, it's fantastic a place for starting and raising a young family. You get a lot of exposure to people from all over the world.
On the other hand, it's actually "too" safe. Locals are sheltered, often making absurd comparisons that neighboring Malaysia / Johor Bahru is some crime ridden warzone, where you take your life into your hands by crossing the border. People file police reports over their food being overly seasoned at restaurants.
IMO raising a child over the long term in the bubble is detrimental as they wind up lacking street smarts which are necessary basically anywhere outside of Singapore.
He was a kingpin dealer who manipulated others into trafficking drugs, not just some poor guy who was unwittingly forced or tricked into carrying cannabis. His pawns, forced into doing his bidding, were spared the death penalty.
I personally don't think marijuana is harmful, but if you're going to be intentionally running a network distributing drugs knowing full well the law, there is really nobody to blame but yourself.
> Especially if you're raising kids
There is no better place to be raising kids to be honest. Singapore boasts a world-class education that consistently ranks at or near the top of the OECD PISA scores, a rich culture with both Eastern and Western perspectives. My Singaporean colleagues (here in the Bay Area) are all outstanding people with both a fine grasp of technical matters and great creativity and critical thinking skills.