Still Eating Our Lunch
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
New York TImes
Published: September 16, 2005

Singapore

Singapore is a country that takes the Internet seriously. Last week  
its Ministry of Defense granted a deferment for the country's  
compulsory National Service to a Singaporean teenager so he could  
finish competing in the finals of the World Cyber Games - the  
Olympics of online war games.

Being a tiny city-state of four million, Singapore is obsessed with  
nurturing every ounce of talent of every single citizen. That is why,  
although its fourth and eighth graders already score at the top of  
the Timss international math and science tests, Singapore has been  
introducing more innovations into schools. Its government understands  
that in a flattening world, where more and more jobs can go anywhere,  
it's not enough to just stay ahead of its neighbors. It has to stay  
ahead of everyone - including us.

Message to America: They are not racing us to the bottom. They are  
racing us to the top.

Continued at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/16/opinion/ 
16friedman.html?incamp=article_popular_2